Title: What style of football do 'consumers' prefer to watch? Preliminary insights from a new professional league

Authors: Abel Duarte Alonso; Michelle O'Shea

Addresses: School of Management, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia. ' School of Management, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia

Abstract: The present study investigates the perspective of fans and non-fans of a club of Australia's A-League regarding the style of football they prefer to watch. A total of 1706 respondents participated and provided their own preferences in the form of comments. As many as 40.7% fundamentally prefer attacking football; in all, almost 80% indicated attacking, passing or both, highlighting their interest to see flowing, entertaining football. Interestingly, 11.6% just want the team to win, prefer all types or that of 'total' football, and 9.2%, 'the strategists' provide more elaborate comments in a clear allusion to their strong preference for the quality of play. These answers were more predominant among individuals with more club fan and membership 'seniority'. These individuals also planned to attend more games than other respondent groups. Implications of the findings for sport organisations and sport consumers, as well as avenues of future research are discussed.

Keywords: football; soccer; consumers; playing styles; fan perceptions; consumer perceptions; new professional league; Australia; A-League; attacking football; winning football; total football; football fans; sport management; passing football; flowing football; entertaining footbal.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2012.046443

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2012 Vol.3 No.1, pp.4 - 20

Published online: 08 Apr 2012 *

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