Measures
The survey was comprised of items pertaining to respondents’ demographic backgrounds; their
relationship with football (both with the team they already supported and football in general);
and their relationship with MyFC, in terms of both the project and EUFC.
Demographic variables collected were gender, age, highest educational qualification, nationality,
occupation and annual income. ‘Relationship with football’ was probed via a series of questions
designed to measure loyalty to a particular team and active interest in the sport. We asked
respondents whether they supported any team other than EUFC prior to joining the MyFC brand
community. Listed teams were subsequently grouped by standard and location into 7 categories
(English Premier League, Football League, non-league; Scotland/Ireland; European clubs -
Champions League regular participants; European clubs - other; Non-European clubs) with an
eighth category 'None/only support EUFC' added. Further items investigated, with respect to the
previous full season, how many of this other team’s matches they attended, whether they
purchased a season ticket for this team, and how often they watched this team’s matches live on
TV. Strength of commitment to football in general was gauged by the total number of matches
watched on TV, and whether they purchased shirts or watched live matches of clubs other than
EUFC or the club they had previously stated.
A respondent’s relationships with MyFC and EUFC was first