Football fireworks

The North East’s football fans are renowned for their passionate support towards their teams.  Now, a joint University research project will explore the lifestyles and attitudes, of fans from all of the region’s teams: Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Darlington.

This project, headed by Kevin Dixon, a Lecturer in Sport Studies at the University of Teesside, will examine fans’ honest evaluations of every game this season. Kevin, pictured with scarves from all of the five teams, said: ‘This project will give North East’s football fans the chance to speak for themselves instead of people just theorising about them.  We’re looking for volunteers to take part in online forum discussions and questionnaires throughout the season. We urge fans to log onto the forum after every match, to tell us how much they thought it was worth and why.

‘We’ll also be looking at the spending habits of fans-how do they ‘consume’ their football? Do fans feel they are paying a fair price? Is there pressure on the next generation of fans in terms of merchandising? Is sporting celebrity endorsement important? What qualities do fans feel are important in their celebrity players?’

Other issues to be explored include:

• What drives the fans’ passion for football?
• What do they think is special about their teams?

All interviews with fans will be online, anonymous and confidential. The project will be supervised by Ellis Cashmore, Professor of Culture, Media and Sport at Staffordshire University. Its results will appear in journal Soccer in Society. Fans can log on to the online forum or email football@tees.ac.uk

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