spanish football fans' perception of competitive balance in the spanish football first division

Abstract

Manuel Pérez Vehí

School of Tourism

January 2015

SPANISH FOOTBALL FANS’ PERCEPTION OF COMPETITIVE

BALANCE IN THE SPANISH FOOTBALL FIRST DIVISION

A dissertation submitted by

Manuel Pérez Vehí

In partial completion of the award of

MSc. Sports Management

‘I hereby declare that the dissertation submitted is wholly the work of Manuel Pérez

Vehí. Any other contributors or sources have either been referenced in the prescribed

manner or are listed in the acknowledgements together with the nature and scope of

their contributions.’

Manuel Pérez Vehí II

Abstract

Over time, due to the high level of Competitive Imbalance, La Liga seems to have

become a competition just composed of two teams, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

Researchers have broadly written about Competitive Balance in sports competitions

and some of them have focused their studies in the Spanish league. However, most of

the papers have been based on statistical data drawn from historical sporting results.

Instead, this paper has collected perceptions and wishes of the Spanish football fans

in order to enhance understanding to the concept Competitive Balance, focusing on

their point of view, which is to say, football consumers’ view. As expected, Spanish

fans generally perceive a high level of imbalance in La Liga. In contrast, they

consider that there has been an acceptable Uncertainty of Outcome over time

although fans of other teams rather than RM and FCB perceive a slight decrease in

one-match Competitive Balance. The results of this work also show that their level of

team identification does not affect their perceived Competitive Balance. On the other

hand, the perceived imbalance does not influence their direct consumption behavior.

Finally, some measures to improve Competitive Balance in the Spanish league are

assessed and proposed by respondents.

Words Count = 14.966

Table of Content

Manuel Pérez Vehí III

Table of Content

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................ II

TABLE OF CONTENT ......................................................................................................................................... III

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................................... V

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................ ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................. VIII

DISSERTATION DECLARATION ........................................................................................................................ IX

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.4. DISSERTATION DESIGN ........................................................................................................................ 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 DEFINING THE SPORTS FAN ............................................................................................................. 5 2.3 THE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN LA LIGA ..................................................................................................... 8 2.4 DEFINING COMPETITIVE BALANCE ............................................................................................... 17 2.5 FACTORS OF COMPETITIVE IMBALANCE ....................................................................................... 18 2.6 ACTIONS FOR BOMPETITIVE BALANCE .......................................................................................... 21 2.7 MEASURING COMPETITIVE BALANCE ........................................................................................... 23 2.8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 26

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 28

3.1 AIM AND OBJECTIVES ......................................................................................................................... 28 3.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH METHOD .............................................................................................................. 28 3.3 QUESTIONAIRE DESIGN ....................................................................................................................... 30 3.4 SAMPLING ........................................................................................................................................ 33 3.5 PILOT TEST ...................................................................................................................................... 35 3.6 CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH .............................................................................................................. 36 3.7 RESEARCH ETHICS ............................................................................................................................ 36 3.8 ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................ 37 3.9 STRENGHTS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE SURVEY ........................................................................................ 38

CHAPTER 4: MAIN FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................. 41

4.1 INTRODUCTION: DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS ..................................................................................... 41 4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEAM IDENTIFICATION AND THE PERCEPTION ON GENERAL COMPETITIVE

BALANCE ............................................................................................................................................. ..43 4.3 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PERCEPTION ON GENERAL AND ONE-MATCH COMPETITIVE BALANCE OVER

TIME……………………………………………………….................................................................................45 4.4 ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PERCEPTION ON GENERAL COMPETITIVE BALANCE AND THE

DECLINE IN FOOTBALL DIRECT CONSUMPTION ............................................................................................... 50 4.5 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF FOOTBALL DIRECT CONSUMPTION AND THE DECLINE IN FOOTBALL DIRECT CONSUMPTION

........................................................................................................................................................... 51 4.5.1 Football Direct Consumption ............................................................................................................... 51 4.5.2 Decline in Football Direct Consumption .............................................................................................. 54

4.6 COMPARISON OF THE PERCEPTION ON GENERAL COMPETITIVE BALANCE BETWEEN FC BARCELONA-REAL MADRID

FANS AND THE REST OF FANS .................................................................................................................... 56

Table of Content

Manuel Pérez Vehí

4.7 COMPARISON OF THE WISH FOR HAVING A BALANCED COMPETITION BETWEEN FC BARCELONA-REAL MADRID FANS

AND THE REST OF FANS. ........................................................................................................................... 57 4.8 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MEASURES PREFERRED AMONG FANS TO INCREASE COMPETITIVE BALANCE ....... 59

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................. 66

5.1 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 66 5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 68

APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................................... XI

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH ................................................................................................... XI APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE IN SPANISH ................................................................................................. XV APPENDIX 3: ‘PRIVACY AND CONFICENTIALITY’ MESSAGE .......................................................................... XVIII APPENDIX 4: CODEBOOK ...................................................................................................................... XIX APPENDIX 5: CODING OF QUESTION 15D ................................................................................................... XX APPENDIX 6: CROSSTABULATION Q1-Q16 ............................................................................................... XXI APPENDIX 7: MANN-WHITNEY U TEST Q1-Q3FINALSSIS .......................................................................... XXII APPENDIX 8: CROSSTABULATION Q2AGERANGES-Q16 ........................................................................... XXIII APPENDIX 9: SPEARMAN’S RANK ORDER CORRELATION BETWEEN SSIS AND GENERAL CB PERCEPTION (QUESTION

13) ................................................................................................................................................ XXIV APPENDIX 10: SPEARMAN’S RANK ORDER CORRELATION BETWEEN GENERAL CB PERCEPTION (QUESTION 13) AND

DIRECT FOOTBALL CONSUMPTION VARIABLES (Q12A TO Q12E) ................................................................. XXV APPENDIX 11: MANN-WHITNEY U TEST Q13-Q16 .................................................................................. XXVI APPENDIX 12: MANN-WHITNEY U TEST Q14-Q16 ................................................................................ XXVII

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ XXVIII

List of Tables

Manuel Pérez Vehí V

List of Tables

Table 2.1: Total number of Spanish Football First Division leagues won

by team.

9

Table 2.2: Winners of Spanish Football First Division leagues in the last

30 seasons.

9

Table 2.3: Winners of English Premier League in the last 30 seasons. 10

Table 2.4: Winners of the Bundesliga in the last 30 seasons. 11

Table 2.5: Winners of the Serie A in the last 30 seasons. 11

Table 2.6: Real Madrid revenues from the UEFA Champions League

2013/14.

13

Table 2.7: Top European clubs regarding historical participation in UEFA

Champions League.

14

Table 2.8: Top Spanish clubs regarding historical participation in UEFA

Champions League.

15

Table 4.1: Crosstabulation SSIS scores and general CB (Question 13). 44

Table 4.2: Correlation between perceived general CB (Q13) and decline

in football direct consumption variables (Q12a to Q12e).

50

Table 4.3: Breakdown of sports Media consumption in Spain. 52

Table 4.4: The most-viewed TV programmes from 1997 to 2010. 53

Table 4.5: Mean of perceived general CB of the sample. 56

Table 4.6: Wish of a perfect balance in the Spanish league (mean). 59

List of Figures

Manuel Pérez Vehí

List of Figures

Figure 2.1: Total revenues made by the top European clubs in

2012/2013.

12

Figure 2.2: Concentration of investments in players made in the

top European leagues in 2013/2014.

16

Figure 2.3: Comparison of ticket prices among the European top

clubs.

25

Figure 4.1: Count of respondents by gender and team. 41

Figure 4.2: SISS by gender (%). 42

Figure 4.3: Distribution of respondents by age range (count) 43

Figure 4.4: Crosstabulation SSIS scores and general CB

(Question 13) (count of respondents).

44

Figure 4.5: One match CB perception over time (mean). 46

Figure 4.6: One match CB trend from 2006 to 2011. 47

Figure 4.7: General CB perception over time (mean). 48

Figure 4.8: Trend of excitement to qualify for the UEFA

Champions League in the top European football leagues between

seasons 2006/07 and 2011/12.

49

Figure 4.9: Trend of excitement to avoid relegation in the top

European football leagues between seasons 2006/07 and 2011/12.

49

Figure 4.10: Football direct consumption behaviour among fans. 51

Figure 4.11: Football TV audiences’ season 2011-2012. 53

Figure 4.12: Decline in football direct consumption behaviour

among fans (mean).

55

Figure 4.13: Preferred proposed measures to increase CB (mean). 59

Figure 4.14: TV Broadcasting revenues per club in La Liga,

season 2012-13.

61

Figure 4.15: Other measures proposed by respondents to increase

CB (count).

63

List of Abbreviations

Manuel Pérez Vehí VII

List of Abbreviations

CB Competitive Balance

CF Club de Fútbol

CI Competitive Imbalance

CL Champions League

CR Concentration Rate

CSD Consejo Superior de Deportes

EASM European Association for Sport Management

EL Europe League

FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association

FCB Fútbol Club Barcelona

IC Imbalanced Competition

LFP Liga de Fútbol Profesional

NEL New European league

PCB Perceived Competitive Balance

Q… Question…

RCR Ratio of Concentration Rate

RM Real Madrid

RM/FCB Real Madrid and FC Barcelona

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences

SSIS Sport Spectator Identification Scale

TI Team Identification

UEFA Union of European Football Associations

UO Uncertainty of Outcome

UOH Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis

Acknowledgements

Manuel Pérez Vehí

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to thank Dr Ian Jones for awaking my interest in sports fans

related topics and helping me through the entire dissertation process.

In addition, I also want to express my gratitude and love to my family and friends

that have always supported and encouraged me.

Dissertation Declaration

Manuel Pérez Vehí IX

Dissertation Declaration

I agree that, should the University wish to retain it for reference purposes, a copy of

my dissertation may be held by Bournemouth University normally for a period of 3

academic years. I understand that, once the retention period has expired, my

dissertation will be destroyed.

Confidentiality

I confirm that this dissertation does not contain information of a commercial or

confidential nature or include personal information other than that which would

normally be in the public domain unless the relevant permissions have been obtained.

In particular any information relating to their health, ethnicity, criminal history or sex

life has been anonymised unless permission has been granted for its publication from

the person to whom it relates.

Copyright

The copyright for this dissertation remains with me.

Requests for information

I agree that this dissertation may be made available as the result of a request for

information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Signed:

Name: Manuel Pérez Vehí

Date: December 27, 2014

Programme: MSc. Sports Management

Chapter 1: Introduction

Manuel Pérez Vehí 1

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Introduction.

"In a perfectly balanced contest, each participant starts with an equal chance of winning, so that the outcome will be completely uncertain"

(Szimanski, 2001)

The uncertainty of the outcome is one of the principal aspects that help to preserve

the interest in any sports competition. This interest can dramatically decline

particularly in such an uneven contest as La Liga. This issue can lead to diverse

negative effects such as a drop of both direct and indirect football consumption by

fans. The former related to watching or listening matches live and the latter linked

to ancillary or subsequent consumption such as buying club’s merchandising,

buying drinks and food at the stadium and so on.

A glance at the statistics of the Spanish football highest division, La Liga, proves

that this competition has been far from being perfectly balanced since its

foundation. On the contrary, the dominance of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in

that competition has progressively increased over the last decades. This

disequilibrium is primarily motivated by the growing gap of financial power

between these two clubs and the rest of clubs participating in La Liga.

This study presents a broad understanding of terms such as Competitive Balance or

Football Fans, and uses these two notions in order to learn more about the manifest

disequilibrium in La Liga, how football fans feel about it, and how this perceived

imbalance could be reflected in terms of football consumption.



1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic.

Researchers have extensively studied Competitive Balance in sports competitions.

However, little literature has specifically focused in the Spanish football league

largely dominated by Real Madrid and FC Barcelona over the last decades. In

addition, academics have generally studied Competitive Balance from an offer

standpoint, or, in other words, from the statistical pooling of the results occurring in

the field, without taking into account what the real consumers, Spanish football

fans, perceive and feel about it. This study will try to fill this gap by asking fans

about their perceptions and wishes.

1.3. Aim and Objectives.

This research examines the difference of perceptions and wishes about CB in La

Liga and how, as a consequence, Spanish fans modify their frequency of direct

football consumption. This study will compare the findings coming from the

supporting fans of the two most powerful Spanish football clubs, RM and FCB,

with those coming from the fans of rest of the clubs. In order to achieve the given

aim the following objectives are pursued:

- Objective 1: To critically analyse the theoretical concepts of fan and

competitive balance and their development in literature.

- Objective 2: To show evidence of the imbalance in the Spanish football

First Division over the last 30 years.

- Objective 3: To learn about fans’ perceptions and wishes about Competitive

Balance in La Liga depending on which team they are fans of and how

strongly they are psychologically committed to their team.

- Objective 4: To relate the disparities of fans’ perceptions and wishes about

CB to their behaviour in direct football consumption. This will eventually

add useful information for La Liga administrators to understand better La

Liga’s end consumers, football fans.



1.4. Dissertation Design.

Chapter 1 introduces the topic, aim and objectives and chapter 2 goes deeper into

the topic presented in the previous chapter. The background of the Spanish football

First Division is included in this chapter as well. Chapter 3 presents and explains

the methodology applied to gather the primary data required to meet the objectives

set out in chapter 1. Chapter 4 exposes and analyses the findings of the primary

research, and finally chapter 5 discusses the results and makes some

recommendations.

Chapter 2: Literature Review


Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1 Introduction.

The literature review, comprised in chapter 2, has been an essential step prior to the

primary research carried out in this study, explained in the following sections.

Literature review served as the basis for the primary data research that has further

been undertaken in this study (Clark et al., 1998). Finn et al. (2000) consider

essential the analysis of the existing information in order to adjust that information to

the primary research objectives (stated in chapter 1 and section 3.1).

The literature review took around two months of work involving the processes of

literature and secondary data searches, gathering of documents and information,

analysis of the collected data, writing, and ultimately text review. ‘Readily available

published’ information was gathered from ‘external sources’ (Kumar et al., 1999)

and subsequently discussed. The sources used for the literature review were

specialized academic journals, articles, books, online websites and other reliable

compilations from sport entities and administration organizations.

Online Academic Journals: Numerous academic journal articles were retrieved

from the online library resources of Bournemouth University. These are journals

focused on sports’ psychology, sports’ economy, sports’ laws and other specific

areas related to sports.

Books and eBooks: Several books and eBooks of research methodologies, sports’

economics, and sports’ fans accessed online or found in hard copy at Bournemouth

University’s libraries.



Websites of government bodies: Official football organisations’ websites such as

www.uefa.com or www.lfp.es have played a vital role in order to gather football

statistics presented in this paper.

Other Websites: Football-related agencies or companies such as

www.soccerex.com, www.worldfootball.net or www.bdfutbol.com have greatly

contributed to this study with important football statistics as well.

Others: A conference attended in September 2014, organised by the EASM

(European Association for Sport Management), and some published relevant

University papers accessed online.

Overall, academic documents about Competitive Balance and fandom and basic data

from the Spanish football league were mostly easily accessible. However, other

specific data was by no means reachable such as players’ salaries or detailed content

of the individual contracts between clubs and TV broadcasters which would have

brought a considerable value-added to this chapter.

2.2 Defining the Sports Fan.

Defining the term fan is a seemingly easy task yet it can be done in many ways.

Cesamore et al. (2011) and Hills (2002) argue that each human being has a singular

definition of this word. Literature has focused on classifying the different types of

fan rather than trying to reach consensus in its definition. Furthermore, Cashmore

(2000) claims that the word fan has been misused by literature. He argues that the

reason for this may reside on the roots of the word. According to Dictionary.com

(2014), fan is an Americanism coming from the word fanatic, a word with negative

connotations that ultimately refers to a person with disproportionate and often

irrational excitement (Cashmore, 2000). Cashmore (2000) explains that the Latin

origin of this word comes from the Latin fanum, meaning temple. This explanation

is aligned with the origins of the word fanatic explained in Dictionary.com (2004)

indicating that this term comes from the Latin fanaticus, meaning ‘pertaining to a



temple’. The word temple can be found in old religious texts such as the New

Testament, meaning ‘house of the Lord’, ‘house of prayer’, ‘house of sacrifice’,

‘house of my glory’, etc. (Dictionary.reference.com, 2014). Some relation can be

found in the world of sports since many fans attend stadiums not only to support

their teams but also to adulate their idols in a similar way religious practitioners

worship their God/s when they attend the church, synagogue, etc.

The term fan is also frequently used in other circles different than sports like music,

cinema, art, comic, etc. Cashmore (2000) defines some of the fans as ‘devoted

followers’ since they behave like religious devotees. These fans can project

unreasonable fixation in their icons. However, according to Cashmore (2000), most

of the fans are less extravagant since they just structure part of their ordinary lives

around the more famous lives of persons or groups of persons. Thus, fandom must

be seen as a social acceptable activity in day-to-day lives of the majority of fans. In

the same vein, Jenson (1992) and Crawford (2004) also express their disagreement

in how the word fan has been treated by literature. Jenson (1992) says that fans

have always been seen as ‘them’ rather than ‘us’ and they have mostly been related

to ‘declining subgroups’, having one of these shared pathological behaviours: a

tendency to a permanent isolation or to hysterically behave in crowds. According to

Jenson, the literature has stigmatized fans as victims of a society in decline. This is

why she prefers to call aficionados those uncommon fans that belong to high

cultural classes, those who are sophisticated and consume wealthy products. The

behaviour of football hooligans in the 70s and 80s in England had also a negative

impact in the perception of football fans. Literature forgot about the common

crowds to focus on the violent spectators. (Duke, 1991). Crawford (2004) claims

that the term fans has usually been mixed up with ‘obsessed’ individuals, having an

‘intense’ interest in a club, star, show, band or similar. He also agrees with the two

declining groups described by Jenson (1992) but he goes further by identifying and

naming those people looking for isolation as lonely males and those with hysterical

behaviour in crowds as female groupies. Instead of focusing on extreme behaviours



of some fans, researchers must consider that most of fans are just common people

that consume sports to some extent in a healthy way.

Football fans are a subset of Sport fans in general. Sport fans are defined as people

consuming sports who feel identified with, follow and are interested in a player, a

team or a sport (Wann et al., 2001). On the other hand, the authors make a peculiar

distinction between Sport fans and Sport Spectators since they consider that Sport

Spectators the last are the ones that actually consume sports (sports consumers) in

any context; attending the events, following the news online, watching them on TV,

through the radio, newspapers, etc., even if they do not feel identified with any

team, player or sport. Hills (2002) agrees with Wann et al. (2001) that a fan activity

does not involve necessarily direct consumption. Rather, fans’ characters, their

feelings, their identification degrees, their beliefs, their group relations, etc. will

lead them to behave in a certain way through direct consumption (following games

at the stadium or through the media) or indirect consumption, such as buying club’s

merchandising, gambling, chatting about sports with their friends, etc. In any case,

it can be challenging to imagine a sports fan that does not consume sports

whatsoever in one way or another.

It can be said that team fandom (Wann et al., 2001) is intimately related to the term

Team Identification (TI) which is defined by the degree of psychological

commitment that a fan keeps for a specific team. Similarly, Wann and Pierce

(2003) argue that a sport fan is a sport admirer that has a special connection to a

specific team. Sport fans show different levels of commitment to their teams

through diverse emotional, cognitive and behavioural attitudes. It is worth to point

out the observation added by Cesamore et al. (2011) in which they state that

literature has also made a distinction between fandom and fanship. The former

refers to the connection of fans with their team, and the latter refers to the

relationships among fans.



Assuming what literature has to say about what being a fan in general represents,

the most appropriate definition regarding the aim of this study would be a person

that follows to a certain extent a sport and also feels identified with a team in any

intensity. This meaning would be very close to the description stated by Cesamore

et al. (2011) in which fan is defined by ‘an individual having interest in sport and

following the progress of a particular club or sporting figure’.

For the best interest of this specific paper, the extent of the word fan will be

narrowed down to any Spanish football follower that supports any Spanish First

Division football club.

2.3 The Disequilibrium in La Liga.

‘For a long time, sports journalists, and by extension supporters, have shared the same observation: that there are two leagues, that which Barcelona and Real Madrid play in, with the occasional intrusion of a third team, and that which the other 18 teams compete in.’

(Montes et al., 2014)

Up until now, since the season 1928/29, there have been 83 editions of La Liga. 54

editions, 65% of them, were won by either RM or FCB (LFP, 2014).



Table 2.1: Total number of Spanish Football First Division leagues won by team.

LEAGUES WON REAL MADRID 32 38.55%

FC BARCELONA 22 26.51% ATLETICO DE MADRID 10 12.05% ATHLETIC CLUB DE BILBAO 8 9.64% VALENCIA CF 6 7.23% REAL SOCIEDAD DE SS 2 2.41% SEVILLA CF 1 1.20% BETIS BALOMPIE 1 1.20% DEPORTIVO DE LA CORUNA 1 1.20%

Total 83 100.00%

(Adapted from BDFUTBOL, 2014)

Over the last three decades the imbalance of the competition has increased. Both

clubs RM and FCB have added up a total of 25 out of 30 victories in the Spanish

league that implies a rate of 83.4% of the overall championships.

Table 2.2: Winners of Spanish Football First Division leagues in the last 30 seasons.

LEAGUES WON FC BARCELONA 13 43.33%

REAL MADRID 12 40.00% VALENCIA CF 2 6.67% ATLETICO DE MADRID 2 6.67% DEPORTIVO DE LA CORUNA 1 3.33%

Total 30 100.00%

(Adapted from LFP, 2014)



In other top European football national leagues such as the English Premier league,

the German Bundesliga or the Italian Serie A, as well unevenness has been patent in

the same period of time. However, in La Liga only two teams, RM and FCB, have

won most of the times while in the other leagues it seems there have been more clubs

having chances for the final victory.

Table 2.3: Winners of English Premier League in the last 30 seasons.

LEAGUES WON MANCHESTER

UNITED 13 10.00% ARSENAL FC 5 43.33% LIVERPOOL FC 3 16.67% CHELSEA FC 3 10.00% EVERTON FC 2 6.67% MANCHESTER CITY 2 6.67% BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 3.33% LEEDS UNITED 1 3.33%

Total 30 100.00%

(Adapted from Worldfootball.net, 2014a)

Conversely to La Liga, where more than 83% of the championships were won just by

two clubs, RM and FCB, in the Premier League there are four clubs that gather 80%

of the titles as seen in table 2.3.



Table 2.4: Winners of the Bundesliga in the last 30 seasons.

!! LEAGUES'WON'!BAYERN'MUNCHEN' 17! 56.67%!

BORUSSIA'DORTMUND' 5! 16.67%!

WERDER'BREMEN' 3! 10.00%!

FC'KAISERSLAUTERN' 2! 6.67%!

VFB'STUTTGART' 2! 6.67%!

VFL'WOLFSBURG' 1! 3.33%!

Total' 30! 100.00%!

(Adapted from Worldfootball.net, 2014b)

German Bundesliga also seems a predictable league since Bayern Munchen has won

17 out of the last 30 leagues. However, conversely to La Liga where only two teams

have won 83.4% times, in Germany there are three teams that add up that figure.

Table 2.5: Winners of the Serie A in the last 30 seasons.

!! LEAGUES'WON'!JUVENTUS' 9! 31.03%!

AC'MILAN' 8! 27.59%!

INTER'MILAN' 6! 20.69%!

SSC'NAPOLI' 2! 6.90%!

AS'ROMA' 1! 3.45%!

LAZIO'ROMA' 1! 3.45%!

SAMPDORIA' 1! 3.45%!

HELLAS'VERONA' 1! 3.45%!

Total' 29! 100.00%!

(Adapted from Worldfootball.net, 2014c)

Note: At the season 2004/2005 the final victory was not eventually assigned to any team do to a match-fixing scandal.



As shown in table 2.5, in the Italian Serie A, there were also more teams winning

several times the competition than in La Liga. The first three clubs do not even add

up 80% of the total victories.

The economic power of the clubs participating in La Liga is extremely unequal. RM

and FCB are not just on top of La liga’s clubs in terms of revenues but on top of all

European clubs as well.

(Deloitte, 2014)

Figure 2.1: Total revenues made by the top European football clubs in 2012/2013.



The first reason for the financial disparity among the Spanish clubs is the way the

football TV rights are distributed in Spain. The current system assigns TV incomes

in a ratio 12 to 1 between the clubs that receives the most (RM or FCB) and the one

that receives the less. In the other European leagues this ratio does not exceed 2 to 1

(Montes et al., 2014). Furthermore, in the European countries there is usually a

collective bargaining scheme which means that teams are represented by a football

association in charge of the negotiation with the TV broadcaster. However, the

Spanish LFP (Spanish football league association) still functions under an individual

bargaining system which means that teams manage individually their own TV rights

(Gortazar, 2012).

Additionally, authors such as Bahram et al. (2012) argue that the big clubs have a big

advantage by receiving huge incomes from the UEFA Champions League (CL).

Pawlowski et al. (2010) claim that teams playing the CL perform better in their

domestic leagues than clubs that are not playing it since they can afford greater

investments in players’ salaries and transfer fees.

Table 2.6: Real Madrid revenues from the Champions League 2013/14.

SEASON'2013B14'B'REAL'MADRID'CF'REVENUES' FROM' CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE'(EUROS)'

Participation! 8,600,000!Performance!bonus! 5,500,000!Market!pool! 20,514,000!TOTAL'GROUP'STAGE' 34,614,000'Round'of'16' 3,500,000!QuarterBfinals' 3,900,000!SemiBfinals' 4,900,000!Final'(Champion)' 10,500,000!TOTAL'KNOCK'OUT'MATCHES' 22,800,000'Total' 57,414,000'

(Adapted from UEFA.COM, 2014a)



The table above shows the revenues that RM perceived from the CL during the

season 2013/2014. RM secured 57.4 million euros, the highest revenue in the last

edition of the CL. By only participating in the CL, clubs received 8.6 million euros.

In addition, they also get payments from: wining or drawing matches (‘performance

bonus’), the value of their national TV market adjusted for every team individually

(‘market pool’), and their participation in each knock-out stage. Finally, the

champion, in this case RM, receives an additional amount of money (UEFA.COM,

2014a).

Logically, if FCB and RM have already participated in 19 editions, participation

substantially ahead of the rest of the Spanish teams, they have also been receiving

much higher revenues than the others. In addition, since the introduction of the new

format of the CL during the season 1999/2000, RM and FCB are on top of the

winners of that competition with 4 and 3 championships respectively (see table 2.7),

which means that they have received huge amounts of money from UEFA CL.

Table 2.7: Top European clubs regarding historical participation in UEFA Champions League.

(Adapted from UEFA.COM, 2014b)



Furthermore, according to Iara (2014), UEFA is planning to increase the total income

by 30% in the next years which means that clubs qualifying for the competition will

receive greater revenues. As a consequence, the financial gap between these big

clubs and the rest in their national competitions will increase even further.

Table 2.8: Top Spanish clubs regarding historical participation in UEFA

Champions League.

(Adapted from UEFA.COM, 2014b)

As shown in table 2.8, in terms of participation and victories in the CL, RM and FCB

are far away from the rest of the Spanish clubs.

The enormous disproportion of revenues among clubs leads Spanish clubs to invest

also money in very different proportions.



(Soccerex, 2014)

Figure 2.2: Concentration of investments in players made in the top European leagues in 2013/2014.

The information displayed in the figure above demonstrates that the two Spanish

wealthiest clubs, RM and FCB, made the majority of investments in players among

all the Spanish football clubs during the season 2013/2014.

In 2013, Berger asserted that the Spanish championship was highly predictable since

the last eight Spanish leagues were won by either RM or FCB, which reveals a

negative trend in Competitive Balance over the last years. However, Berger (2013)

also argues that in La Liga, Competitive Balance is high among the clubs that usually

follow RM and FCB since there are very few points of difference between the last

qualifying positions for the CL and the last qualifying positions for the Europe

League (EL). La Liga is also very competitive for clubs avoiding relegation as well

since they are fighting to stay in the First Division until the last matches (Berger,

2013). As a matter of fact, depending on what criteria researchers chose to identify

Competitive Balance, La Liga can be seen as a more or less balanced competition.



Actually, ‘the main problem when studying competitive balance is that there is no

precise definition of it’ (García Villar, Rodríguez Guerrero, and Lejarraga Camino

(2005) cited by Montes et al., 2014)

2.4 Defining Competitive Balance.

‘’The nature of the industry is such that competitors must be of approximately equal "size" if any are to be successful; this seems to be a unique attribute of professional competitive sport.’’

(Rottenberg, 1956)

Already in the 50s, Competitive Balance was an issue to take care of in professional

sports. Rottenberg (1956) asserted this referring to the American professional

Baseball league. Fifteen years later, El-Hodiri and Quirk (1971) also made reference

to a suitable competitive balance when mentioning the necessary exception of the

American antitrust laws for professional sports, in order to get an ‘equalization of

playing strengths among teams’. Buzzacchi et al. (2001) explains that there is a

perfect Competitive Balance when fans perceive that there are equal opportunities for

all outcomes in a competition. Conversely, a competition would be totally

imbalanced when fans knew the winner a priori. Actually, fans can lose their interest

in a sport contest if there is not at least some degree of competitive balance in it

(Szymanski, 2001). According to Szymanski (2001), Competitive Balance can be

defined as the degree of outcome uncertainty that fans perceive from a particular

contest.

Uncertainty or more precisely Uncertainty of Outcome (UO) seems to be the major

requirement to maintain sports fans’ excitement from the competition which would

be a consequence of competitive balance to some extent. According to Pawlowski

(2013), UOH (Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis) was a concept firstly forged by



Rottenberg in 1956 and Neale in 1964. Since then, as Leeds and Von Allmen (2004)

assert, literature has considered it an indispensable factor to improve Competitive

Balance, hence, to satisfy fans’ need of excitement from the game (i.e. see Buzzacchi

et al., 2001; Dobson and Goddard, 2001; Szymanski, 2001; Szymanski and

Zimbalist, 2005; Ross and Szymanski, 2008; Cairns et al., 1986: Cairns, 1987;

Pawlowski, 2013; Pawlowski and Nalbantis, 2014). On the other hand, Szymanski

(2001) also states that some degree of competitive imbalance does not affect fans’

interest in competition.

2.5 Factors of Competitive Imbalance.

There are numerous issues that could drive sport competition to be imbalanced. The

most relevant factors, listed below, are particularly influential for European

professional football Competitive Balance:

Different objectives of the clubs. Clubs pursuing sporting success are more likely to

endanger the Competitive Balance of a competition rather than pure profit

maximizers as they may create greater disparity in playing performance among the

clubs competing in the same contest (Cairn et al., 1986). Clubs that look for profit try

not to waste resources by buying players they cannot afford, and this makes a sport

competition more balanced since the talent is better distributed. Conversely, if clubs

mostly look for the sporting success the competition will be more imbalanced since

the clubs with stronger finances will be able to buy the best players (Dobson and

Goddard, 2001, p.146). Particularly in Europe, team sports clubs are not-for-profit

organizations whose main objective is to win, and thus, competitions are imbalanced

(Kesenne, 2000a). It could be added to Kesenne’s statement that even in the case of

profit maximizers, European clubs also need to be successful in the field in their

national leagues in order to get profits since they can get great revenues by

qualifying for the European competitions. Therefore, in any case competitions would



be imbalanced when there are clubs with great dissimilar financial potentials. In

addition, football clubs cannot give up in their domestic leagues since they can be

relegated and thus, even if they are profit maximizers, they must spend money in

good players (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005).

Free agency is defined as the freedom of players to move from a team to another at

the end of their contracts without any transfer fee. In European football unlike in

American professional sports, this is possible since the Bosman ruling established in

1995 (Kesenne, 2000b; Dobson and Goddard, 2001, p.125). Vrooman (1996)

concludes that Free agency has a negative impact in the distribution of talent

although most of previous studies carried out in American sports have not revealed

clear effects of free agency on Competitive Balance. However, it should be noted

that those studies were focused on American sports where leagues are close, there are

salary caps, relegation and promotion do not exist, and there is not any other

competition taking place at the same time than the domestic league like the

Champions League in Europe. On the other hand, Leeds and Von Allmen (2004)

argue that whether or not there is free agency, the greatest players will finally end up

playing in the wealthiest clubs since they can afford paying either high transfer fees

or greater wages.

Revenues from the Champions league (CL). This is a further factor to consider that

can spoil Competitive Balance primarily in the national European football leagues.

Revenues from the CL are incomes that only the clubs qualified for European

competitions receive. Hoehn and Szymanski (1999) claim that the most powerful

clubs usually receive incomes from European competitions and the higher are those

incomes, the lowest is the Competitive Balance in their national leagues (Cited in

Dobson and Goddard, 2001, p.149). Ehrhardt et al., 2009 go further when they state

that the CL splits domestic leagues into two groups. Competitive Imbalance (CI) has

increased rapidly in national European leagues especially since the establishment of a



new CL format in 1999 (Ehrhardt et al., 2009; Pawlowski et al., 2010). According to

Ehrhardt et al. (2009) a reorganization of the CL incomes distribution is needed. As

well, Pawlowski (2013) uses the qualification or non-qualification of teams for the

CL as a part of his measurement for the mid-term UO as mentioned further on.

Revenues from CL also include distributed incomes based on CL TV rights that are

huge for clubs competing at the knock-out stages. As an example, since 1994 to

2005, the period of time analyzed by Szymanski and Zimbalist (2005), the four teams

competing in the semifinals got 25% of all the total income distributed by the CL

organization to teams.

Unequal distribution of TV rights. This is a decisive factor of imbalance as well.

According to Pawlowski et al. (2010), among other factors, distribution of media

rights fees can modify Competitive Balance in national international competitions.

As seen before, referring to CL the rise of TV rights is one of the main responsible

factors for CI in European football (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005). Regarding

domestic competitions, there are evident benefits to a competition from a collective

negotiation of a league with TV as compared to individual contracts (Fort and Quirk,

1995). Actually, UK Restrictive Practices Court decided that football TV rights had

to be distributed collectively rather than individually in the UK to keep ‘financial

equality’ in order to maintain UO and therefore Competitive Balance (Szymanski,

2001). Szymanski and Zimbalist (2005) mention that even if in European football

leagues, collective TV rights distribution exists, this system also tends to benefit the

strongest clubs. This statement means that even if TV rights are negotiated and

received collectively by the leagues, the distribution of those rights is not identical

among participating teams. Logically, it is understood that individual TV rights

negotiation like the one currently used in the Spanish League, would lead to a greater

disequilibrium.



Other relevant issues. Finally, there are other aspects that can alter Competitive

Balance in sport competitions around the world; political support from local,

regional or national authorities (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005; Ross and

Szymanski, 2008), irresponsible financial management of some club owners together

with little control on the part of authorities (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005),

different national tax rules, club property rights legislation, no salary caps, and

league rules such as promotion and relegation, points per victory, league size, etc.

(Pawlowski et al., 2010).

2.6 Actions for Competitive Balance.

A number of authors have also extensively written about the different existing

measures to maintain or increase Competitive Balance in sport competitions.

Following are the most popular ones among researchers:

Salary Caps. Unlike European football, in American professional sports they use this

tool since it is a common belief that salary caps help to better distribute talent among

teams (i.e. see Leeds and Von Allmen, 2004, p.165; Ehrhard et al., 2009). However,

according to researchers such as Hausman and Leonard (1997) salary caps do not

always lead to better distribution of good players. Conversely, Kesanne (2000) think

that salary caps improve Competitive Balance in sport competitions since salary

expenditures are better distributed, avoiding excessive wages and then allowing clubs

to save and make other investments. Since the 1950s, Competitive Balance has

progressively decreased due to revenue disparities. This is why, according to

Szymanski and Zimbalist (2005) salary caps and even luxury taxes could help to

turn that situation around making sport competitions more balanced.



Revenue sharing. According to some researchers (i.e. see Kesenne, 2000b; Ehrhardt

et al., 2009 ), already the transfer system plays the role of a financial relocation

method to a certain extent since poorer clubs get money from selling talent to

wealthier clubs. However, as explained before, this may be not totally true if clubs

are profit-maximizers. Leeds and Von Allmen (2004, p.164, p.170, p.171) state that

revenue sharing is one of the most relevant measures to prevent CI in American

professional leagues. To achieve that, leagues mandate that gate (matchday) and

national TV revenues are shared (Fort and Quirk, 1995). However, only this measure

will help to increase Competitive Balance, first, if clubs receiving those revenues

invest on more and better players, and second, if players can move from a team to

another. This last requirement is guaranteed in European football since in 1995’s

Bosman Ruling assured free agency.

Supranational European football competition. Since Competitive Balance in

European football leagues has been continuously deteriorating, some scholars have

proposed the establishment of a new European league (EL) where only the best clubs

of each country will be participating in. National leagues will be reserved for those

clubs that do not attain to participate in the EL. Right before the establishment of the

new CL format and only four years after Bosman ruling, Hoehn and Szymanski’s

(1999) claimed for a pan-European contest where the best clubs could play in an

exclusive league and would not have to join in parallel their domestic competitions.

In the long term, this measure could improve the fans’ winning expectations of

smaller clubs that usually have no chance to win their domestic league. In 2005, due

to the further increase of the CI in the national leagues stimulated by the great rise of

the CL’s TV rights, with greater reason Szymanski and Zimbalist insisted in the

establishment of a European major league. According to these researchers, large

clubs make larger investments each year in order to be successful in the CL, making

more imbalanced the national leagues where they play. They propose a European

competition divided in European regional divisions allowing relegation and

promotion to and from domestic leagues but in a very restricted form.



Ownership rules such the 50+1 rule. This rule established in the German Bundesliga

where at least 51% of clubs belong to their members is doubtfully effective to

increase Competitive Balance according to Ehrhardt et al. (2009).

2.7 Measuring Competitive Balance.

Literature has extensively written about how to measure Competitive Balance yet

without finding the perfect formula. Buzzacchi et al. (2001) argued that UO should

also be examined across seasons yet literature had mostly looked upon Competitive

Balance as a static matter. As an example, Fort and Quirk (1995) asserted that a

competition becomes more competitively balanced if the within season win rates

become less dispersed (Cited in Buzzacchi et al., 2001). Cairns (1987) was an

exception to Buzzacchi’s generalization regarding literature since he had already

stated that in sports UO was manifest in diverse situations; in relation to the result of

individual games, with respect to the final classification of the competition, and the

no long-term supremacy in the contest by a specific team. In recent years, scholars

have been measuring Competitive Balance from a multidimensional perspective in

different ways. Leeds and Von Allmen (2004, p.159, p.161, p.163) contemplate

Competitive Balance in two dimensions. First, the within-season dimension shows

the relative quality of clubs over a sole season. It can be measured by the winning

rate for every club. Second, the between-season dimension or turnover reflects the

Competitive Balance across-seasons or the chance that every club has to move-up in

the table every season and compete for the first places. This last dimension

contemplates the variation in the relative classification of the clubs each year. It can

be measured by the frequency of championships won and the frequency of

consecutive championships won by each team. Similarly, Ehrhardt et al. (2009) refer

to ‘seasonal component’ when Competitive Balance is measured within one season

and ‘team component’ when Competitive Balance is analyzed for each team over a

period of time (more than one season). Instead, other authors such as Pawlowski

(2013) and Pawlowski and Nalbantis (2014) split Competitive Balance up into three



dimensions; short-term Competitive Balance or the one game uncertainty outcome,

mid-term Competitive Balance measuring within one season contests such as the

championship, relegation, promotion and European competitions qualifications, and

long-term Competitive Balance referring to degree of supremacy in a competition by

certain clubs over a extended period of time. On the other hand, Ehrhardt et al.

(2009) propose some figures which deserve close attention in order to measure

Competitive Balance such as win rates (useful in the USA professional sports since

teams can never draw), rankings (appropriate within a league), and points. Other two

ratios are related to this latter figure; the Concentration Rate (CR) that indicates the

portion of the total number of points given in a league attained by the top five teams

and the RCR, Ratio of Concentration Rate to ideal Concentration Rate, in perfect

Competitive Balance.

Haugen (2008) emphasizes that Competitive Balance is a decisive factor on

spectators’ demand since fans would not be looking forward to attending a sport

event if the outcome was certain. Competitive Balance is a crucial concern in any

professional sport competition in order to increase demand of league matches and all

their complementary products and services (Manasis and Ntzoufras, 2013). However,

according to Pawlowski (2013) there are no empirical studies about the long-term

Competitive Balance effect on live events attendance or TV audiences and besides

there is anecdotal evidence that would contradict this idea. Actually, according to

Pawlowski (2013), there has been a slight rise of stadiums’ attendance even though

Competitive Balance has decreased. Pawlowski’s deduction seems inaccurate since

the increase of the spectatorship in the Bundesliga could be caused by other factors

such as lower ticket prices (see figure 2.3), more modern and comfortable stadiums

or higher team identification among fans.



(Nufer and Fischer, 2013)

Figure 2.3: Comparison of ticket prices among the European top clubs.

Finally, it is worth making a final consideration. It is manifest that Competitive

Balance is generally seen as a good attribute for professional sport competitions.

However, if we analyze the aggregate fans' interest, that assertion should not be that

obvious. The most wealthy and powerful clubs in sport contests usually have the

largest fandoms. Those fans usually represent the majority of the overall fans in a

competition. In this case, among all clubs’ fans, most of them would expect their

teams to succeed in the sports fields before anything else. As a consequence, from

this point of view, most fans would prefer an uneven competition since the more



imbalanced a competition is the more chances their teams have to be succeed

(Szymanski, 2001). It is worth pointing out that this aggregate refers to the interest of

total fandom. Regarding only total attendance to the stadiums, this probably would

decrease at the same pace than the decrease of willingness of small teams’ fans to

attend the matches. Logically, if leagues administrators allowed an excessive CI,

only powerful clubs would be able to survive and leagues could not survive. This is

why in the interest of all participants, sport competitions have to be enough balanced.

The data presented in the preceding chapter make it clear that La Liga is highly

imbalanced from the standpoint of the offer side (the participants). This paper

pursues the objective of learning more from the demand’s side. In other words, this

study wants to know how the Spanish football fans perceive Competitive Balance

or CI in the Spanish league. To achieve this, this study has been partly inspired by

Pawlowski (2013)’s ‘Perceived Competitive Balance’ scale (PCB) where he

reflected aspects of UO in its three dimensions: short, mid and long-term, in order

to measure Competitive Balance from fans’ perception. However, Pawlowski

(2013) in its PCB raises questions that probably are not the most adequate to gather

the real fans’ perception of UO. Fans’ perception of UO should be always measured

in relation to the most powerful clubs that supposedly provoke the imbalance in the

competition, that is, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Therefore, short-term UO

questions have been totally adjusted while mid-term UO questions are not relevant.

2.8 Conclusion.

Fans tend to identify themselves with the team they support. The higher identified they are

with their team, the more they tend to feel it is also their personal success. When their team

wins, their self-esteem goes in harmony with the sporting success of their team. As

well, higher identified fans are more likely to have positive expectations of the

sporting success of their team (Wann and Brascombe, 1993). This study will try to

find general patterns of fans’ perceptions and preferences concerning Competitive



Balance, relating them to their level of psychological commitment to their team and

the type of club they are fans of. Higher Identified fans of the historically most

successful clubs, Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, will probably expect those

triumphant trajectories not to be changed and therefore maintain their level of self-

esteem. It is then expected that those fans will look forward to having a more

imbalanced competition. Conversely, highly identified fans of other participating

teams will have a very negative perception of the Competitive Balance in La Liga

and they will be looking forward to having a more balanced competition. With a

greater balance, they will be expecting more chances for their teams to succeed and,

as a consequence, their self-esteem to rise.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology


Chapter 3

Research Methodology

3.1 Aim and Objectives.

As already stated in chapter 1, the main aim of this study is to compare and find

patterns of the perceptions regarding Competitive Balance in La Liga between Real

Madrid and FC Barcelona fans and fans from the rest of the clubs in the First

Division of the Spanish football competition. To accomplish this aim the following

objectives are established:

- Objective 1: To critically analyse the theoretical concepts of fan and

competitive balance and their development in literature.

- Objective 2: To show evidence of the imbalance in the Spanish football First

Division over the last 30 years.

- Objective 3: To learn about fans’ perceptions and wishes about Competitive

Balance in La Liga depending on which team they are fans of and how

strongly they are psychologically committed to their team.

- Objective 4: To relate the disparities of fans’ perceptions and wishes about

CB to their behaviour in direct football consumption. This will eventually add

useful information for La Liga administrators to understand better La Liga’s

end consumers, football fans.

3.2 Primary Research Method.

Primary research has been carried out to obtain additional in-depth data to achieve

the aim and objectives of this study. The primary research method has been designed



in order to fill the information gap found in the literature review through the analysis

of available information.

Primary data can be collected though observation, experimentation or a survey

method such as a face-to-face and focus interview, a group discussion, a postal or

telephone survey, a panel research, or other special procedures including Internet-

based methods. Over the last decades, these procedures have significantly evolved

due to the outstanding improvements of information technology (Chisnall, 2001).

According to Finn et al. (2000) the survey is the most appropriate method when there

is a large quantity of information to be collected in a limited period of time. In view

of the scarce timescale to gather primary data, this research method has been applied

for this study. In addition, collection of data through face-to-face interviews usually

implies greater costs since interviewers must face their call costs or travel costs to

conduct the interviews as well as a long time in order to both manage interviews and

process the information collected (Oppenheim, 2000). Since the target population of

this study lives in Spain, conducting personal interviews in Spain would have led to

additional expenditure and time consuming. Another option was to carry out either

telephone or online interviews but there would have been many difficulties in

coordinating the appropriate timing with the respondents as well as the call costs of

the former would have been excessively high. The questionnaire was sent online

which allowed reaching a large number of potential respondents at an irrelevant cost.

Furthermore, sending the questionnaire online allowed the receivers to decide the

moment to answer it providing this research the opportunity to collect greater

number of responses.

On the other hand, the survey research method for primary data collection can be

either quantitative or qualitative, or a combination of both. In those cases where there

is a rationale, this latter approach is the most suitable (Finn et al., 2000) since the

research outcomes will be enhanced. Finn et al. (2000) argue that quantitative and



qualitative approaches are complementary rather than opposite. Quantitative research

implies collecting information that can be expressed in form of numbers. In contrast,

qualitative research does not involve numbers and the analysis of the results is not

based on statistical analysis (Veal 2006). Mostly, quantitative approach examines

‘what’ happens while qualitative methodology analyses ‘why’ that happens. This

study relies on a quantitative approach in order to reach numerical findings and

debate theories from literature. The results of this study are based on statistical

analysis; however, some questions are qualitative by nature yet they are shown in a

quantitative structured questionnaire (Veal, 2006). This way, the quantitative

research method applied in this study has favored collection of both quantitative and

qualitative information from a larger quantity of people.

Specifically, this quantitative research method has been implemented by a survey

undertaken through a questionnaire. A decisive reason to use a questionnaire is that

this questionnaire includes an adaptation of a valid and reliable scale, the Sport

Spectator Identification Scale (Wann and Branscombe, 1993), and some ideas

adapted from the questionnaire created by Pawlowski (2013) about Perceived

Competitive Balance (PCB).

3.3 Questionnaire Design.

Researchers must prepare the questions needed in order to accomplish the aim and

objectives of the study (Finn et al. 2000). They must be clear about the main subject

areas of which they want to acquire a wider knowledge and then they must raise the

specific questions they need to achieve this. Researchers must take into account that the

length of the questionnaire should not exceed six pages (Gillham, 2007).

The questionnaire of this study (see appendix 1 for the English version and appendix 2

for the Spanish version) has a length of four pages and includes sixteen questions, some



of them split in some sub-questions resulting in a total of thirty-four different items.

Thirty-two out of thirty-four items, from the third question onwards, correspond to

specific questions or sub-questions made in order to analyse the different topics of this

dissertation. The first two questions are demographic questions about gender and age.

As Owen and Jones (1994) state that a poorly designed questionnaire could ruin a

well thought-out survey. For them, a good design must gather the following

requirements that have been applied for the design of this questionnaire:

- Questions must be short since they are easier to be understood and it is easier

for the respondent not to lose thread.

- Questions must be written with simple words. This questionnaire has been

translated into Spanish using very simple words and always strictly keeping

the same meaning than in English (see appendix 2). The translation has been

tested by two bilingual English-Spanish people.

- Answers must not be biased with questions pushing answers in some

direction. The question about ‘which is your preferred Spanish football

team?’ was placed at the end of the questionnaire in order not to influence the

way respondents give their answers.

- Respondents must have enough information to answer the questions. In

question 13, the respondents are given a definition of ‘perfectly balanced

contest’ to ease them the understanding of the question.

- Respondents should be willing to tell the truth. In this questionnaire, there are

not controversial questions as well as people usually like to express

themselves when they talk about football.

- The beginning of the questionnaire must contain simple questions. Questions

1 and 2 only ask for demographic information. Question 3 is short, direct and

easy to answer.

- Answers must be easily interpreted. The questionnaire is designed in order to

process all the information collected. Sub-question 15d is open-ended to let



the respondents to give more ideas on how to balance the competition.

However, the literature review showed that there are only a few measures

susceptible to increase Competitive Balance so the codification of the

answers remains simple.

According to Bourke and Clark (1994) the questionnaire must be developed by

including questions already used in other questionnaires, by adjusting questions from

other existing questionnaires, or by producing their own questions. This

questionnaire consists of all three kinds of questions. The questions of the Sport

Spectator Identification Scale, SISS, (Wann and Branscombe, 1993) have been

included in this questionnaire (questions 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9, and sub-question 6a).

Since the SSIS is a reliable and valid scale, its inclusion gives more consistency to

this study when comparing the degree of Team Identification with other variables.

However, three needed adjustments have been done. Firstly, in question 6 (see

appendix 1) the word ‘online’ has been added since the Internet use had not burst yet

when that scale was created. Secondly, the two words‘… in general’ have been

added, thus creating the sub-question 6a that actually represents the SSIS question.

The reason to do this is that the original SSIS question has been divided in six sub-

questions to further learn about the specific direct consumption changes of the

respondents. Finally, the 8-point Likert scale of the original SSIS has been

transformed into a 5-point Likert scale in order to use the same Likert scale length in

the whole questionnaire and thus do not make the respondent confused.

The Likert scale method requires respondents to show their agreement and

disagreement with statements (Veal, 2006). Johns (2010) states that 5-point length

Likert scale has become the most popular and also argues that research has found

that scales under 5 or over 7 become more inaccurate. As well, he adds that a 5-point

scale is the ideal length since it gives enough choices to answer and makes the

questions manageable for the respondents.



Furthermore, all sub-questions included in questions 10 and 11, and question 13,

have been added to the questionnaire in order to know how fans perceive general and

one-game Competitive Balance in the Spanish Liga over time. These questions were

formulated using Perceived Competitive Balance (PCB) scale designed by

Pawlowski (2013).

An additional and important variable added to this questionnaire is the direct

consumption of La Liga by respondents and how their perception of Competitive

Balance could influence it. This variable is represented by sub-questions 6b to 6f,

and question 12.

In question 14, respondents must give their wish about the ideal degree of

Competitive Balance in the league, and finally, in question 15, they are asked about

the possible measures to be undertaken by the Spanish Football Federation in order

to balance the competition.

At the end of the questionnaire they are asked to specify the team they support in

order to compare results between questionnaires answered by fans of the clubs

supposedly favoured by the imbalance of the competition, Real Madrid and FC

Barcelona, and the rest of the fans.

3.4 Sampling.

In order not to be biased, a sample must be a representative selection taken from a

population which is defined by Veal (2006) as ‘the total category of subjects which

is the focus of attention in a particular research’. Therefore, a sample must be

carefully selected pursuing to maximize representativeness and minimize bias.

Random sampling is the ideal method to achieve this since all members of the

population have the same possibility to be included in the sample (Veal, 2006).

However, for this study it is not possible either identify all the population or to have

access to them. As a consequence, random sampling cannot be carried out because

members of its population do not have the same chance to be included in the sample.



The population of this study consists on all people living in Spain, taking preference

for a team over the rest of the teams participating in La Liga. In order to raise

validity of the results, this study has excluded fans of Spanish football teams living

abroad since the awareness and knowledge of the Spanish league may be weaker.

Non-Random sampling technique is commonly applied for Qualitative research

methods nevertheless this approach is used as well for quantitative research methods

when there is limited time or a short budget (Jennings 2001). Finn et al. (2000)

argue that non-random sampling techniques are also frequently used for exploratory

purposes leading to fairly valid results.

This study has mostly used a non-random convenience sampling method (Davis et

al., 2014). This method has been selected because the access to the sample is

convenient. Both, E-mail and Facebook accounts of the sample were easily

reachable. In addition, the sampling was completed by the snowball sampling

technique by which some respondents made referrals to other potential respondents.

Davis et al. (2014) state that non-random sampling methods are easier and often less

expensive. However, in order to obtain extrapolated results, the researcher must

ensure as much as possible that the sample is representative of the population.

One of the objectives of this sampling process was to collect data from two different

strata, answers from Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans on the one hand and

answers from fans of the rest of the teams participating in La Liga on the other hand.

However, the researcher could not give any clue of this purpose to their respondents

in order not to bias the responses.

Regarding the size of the sample, the total size of the sample is more significant than

the relative size of that sample compared to its population (Veal, 2006). Therefore,

taking into account the limited budget and time and considering the

recommendations of the supervisor of this dissertation, 100 respondents were the

minimum quantity of responses required, as long as the sample of the population was

cautiously selected.



!3.5 Pilot Test.

According to Oppenheim (2000) questionnaires with both an appropriate wording

and an adequate layout of the questions can help to carry out surveys with lower non-

response rates. Pilot tests can help researchers to ensure reliability and validity of the

techniques used for the subsequent data collection (Finn et al. 2000). Pilot testing

involves the implementation of a previous survey in a small-scale sample to check if

the conduct runs easily (Finn et al. 2000).

Prior to data collection, the researcher must make sure that the questionnaire works

properly (Jennings, 2001). Therefore, a pilot study must be carried out.

As a pilot test in this research, at the beginning of October, an English version of the

questionnaire was initially sent via e-mail in a spreadsheet to the dissertation

supervisor. Once the questionnaire was adjusted following his suggestions, it was

sent to several classmates to learn if they could easily fill out the questionnaire. After

some feedback gathered from the respondents, the researcher realized that the

wording and the meaning of some sentences were not always completely clear since

the respondents had some doubts to answer the questions. Therefore, some

corrections had to be made and the questionnaire was further resent to the supervisor

for a final check. Later on, after some final modifications, the questionnaire was

translated into Spanish. That Spanish version was sent along with the English version

of the questionnaire to 2 trusted bilingual relatives. After some discussion about the

ideal Spanish words to be used in some specific cases, a new pilot test was done with

3 trusted Spanish friends after which, since they did not find any flaw whatsoever,

the Spanish version of the questionnaire was ready to be used for the definite survey.

According to the respondents from both pilot tests, it took them from 3 to 5 minutes

to complete the whole questionnaire.



3.6 Conducting the Research.

Carrying out the survey online limits the approach to people not having access to the

Internet (Veal, 2006). However, nowadays most people use Internet with exception

of elderly and very young children. As explained above, the Internet and more

specifically Facebook and e-mail accounts were considered as the most convenient

ways to access the sample.

According to Veal (2006), doing the survey online is low in costs yet it gets low

response rates. With this problem in mind, the researcher planned to send a number

of reminders to potential respondents in order to encourage them to respond. When

the questionnaire was ready, the researcher created a group on his Facebook account

called ‘Cuestionario sobre fútbol. Cortito! Es para la tesis de mi master’

(‘Questionnaire about football. Very short! It is for my master’s dissertation’) and

added 153 friends out of his 335 Facebook friends. These selected people were

considered to have many chances to match with the population of the study. Equally,

10 more individuals were selected from the researcher’s Google list of contacts with

the same criteria and the questionnaire was sent to them.

3.7 Research Ethics. Oppenheim! (2000)! argues! that! the!main! ethical! principle! to! pursue! when! collecting!data!from!respondents!is!not!to!cause!them!any!harm!because!of!their!participation!in!the! survey.! The questionnaire whether posted on Facebook or sent through email

always included a message explaining the reasons of the research, how quick is to

answer all its questions, the respect for privacy and for confidentiality (see appendix

3). In the message, the respondents are also offered to learn about their level of team

identification if they ask for it. In order to avoid bias, the question of the name of the

team they were supporting was placed at the end of the questionnaire and the

spreadsheets’ tab containing the analysis of each questionnaire was hidden and

protected with a password.



All responses received on the researcher’s e-mail and Facebook account were

downloaded and numbered with the only purpose of counting the number of

questionnaires received. Even though the researcher could know about the identity of

the respondent every time a questionnaire was received, that information was not

either found out or recorded. The only exception made for knowing about the

identity of the respondents was for those who asked for their level of team

identification. Only one respondent required this information of which he was

informed immediately. Completing the collection of data took three weeks.

Eventually, 107 people filled out the questionnaire, approximately half of them from

the non-random convenience sampling method and the other half from the snowball

sampling technique. Considering that the sample was initially made up by 163

individuals including Facebook and Google contacts, the responses rate reaches a

percentage of 30-35% of the people belonging to the non-random convenience

sampling.

3.8 Analysis. !

All data was collected in Excel spreadsheests and SPSS (Statistical Package for the

Social Sciences) was used to analyse it. SPSS is considered a powerful data analysis

tool that involves very advanced statistical techniques (Pallant, 2005). SPSS allows

the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data using diverse kinds of scales

(Veal, 2006).

All answers were previously coded in Excel. Then, this data was transferred for

analysis to SPSS which represents a powerful and comprehensive data processing

tool. In SPSS, all data was recoded (codebook included in appendix 4). As well, the

Sport Spectator Identification Scale (SSIS) was calculated in Excel for every

questionnaire before entering this data in SPSS. The SSIS involves questions 3, 4, 5,

6a, 7, 8 and 9 in the questionnaire (see appendix 1). The open-ended question 15d)



was also coded (see appendix 5) after analysing all the responses before entering the

data in SPSS.

After transferring all data to SPSS, the questionnaires survey was analysed by using:

- Descriptive statistics for categorical variables, team (Q16), age range

(Q2AgeRanges) and gender (Q1), in order to explain the composition of the

sample.

- Descriptive statistics for continuous variables to describe the behaviour of

fans in direct football consumption (Q6b, Q6c, Q6d, Q6e, and Q6f), and their

attitude towards the measures to increase CB (Q15a, Q15b, Q15c, and Q15d).

- Chi-square tests for independence to describe how the categorical variables

(team, age range and gender) overlap.

- Mann-Whitney tests to compare the relationship between a categorical

variable such as Q16 (which is your preferred Spanish football team?) and a

continuous variable such as Q13 (‘In general, I consider that La Liga is

rather…’).

- ‘Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation’, a non-parametrical statistics tool, to

analyse the strength of the relationship between two continuous variables

such as the Sport Spectator Identification Scale (SSIS) coded as

Q13FinalSSIS (see appendix 4) and Q13 (‘In general, I consider that La Liga

is rather…’).

The results obtained from the analysis of the data are explained in detail in chapter 4.

Some graphs and tables have been added in order to make easier the understanding

of the results and the statistics.

3.9 Strengths and Limitations of the Survey

As explained above, by using a quantitative research method the researcher was able

to collect a large quantity of data from a target population located in a different



country, Spain, in a limited period of time, and with insignificant costs. Furthermore,

carrying out the survey online has involved two further strengths:

- The ability to reach people sometimes difficult to access to them by telephone

or face-to-face, in an easy and fast way. Some of the respondents are not easy

to contact them in a different way since their only contact information is an e-

mail or Facebook account.

- In addition to time saving, there also was a significant optimization of the use

of time since the researcher could be working on other tasks while the

respondents were filling out the questionnaires.

On the other hand, while conducting this study some limitations came across:

- Due to time limitation, the survey could not be conducted at different seasons

or different stages in the same season in order to avoid the bias in the mood

of respondents. Actually, while the survey was being carried out, the Spanish

competition was highly disputed at the top of the table with 5 teams within

only 2 points of difference. As a consequence, in order to reduce a negative

impact in survey’s reliability, questions about one-game and general

perception of CB were split in different sub-questions making reference to

different periods of time.

- In order to achieve a good responses rate, the researcher had to send a daily

reminder to the potential respondents.

- It was easy to define but impossible to identify all the population for this

study. However, due to the popularity of football in Spain, this was not a real

concern in order to choose a sample.

- Most respondents were fans of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or Valencia CF,

since most of them actually live in Valencia. Valencia CF is an historical

underdog of the Spanish League as well as clubs as At. Madrid or Sevilla CF.



It would have been more suitable to collect more responses from fans of other

weaker clubs participating in La Liga.

- There were some missing answers in some questionnaires that can also make

harder to analyse the results of the survey. In those cases where a variable

was missing, this variable was excluded for the analysis while the rest of

variables were still included.

- Some time ago, conducting the survey online would have been a big

limitation since people did not have either the same easy access to the

computers and Internet or enough knowledge of how to use that technology.

In this study, all questionnaires easily got to the potential respondents and all

the respondents were able to answer the questions and send the questionnaires

back.

- Non-parametrical statistics had to be applied for the analysis of relationships

between continuous variables and comparisons between categorical and

continuous variables since the data could not meet all the necessary criteria in

order to use parametrical statistics such as normal distribution.

Chapter 4: Main Findings and Discussion


Chapter 4

Main Findings and Discussion

4.1 Introduction: Description of Respondents.

Among the 107 respondents, 70.1% were male 32.0% of which were RM/FCB fans

and 68.0% were fans of other teams while 29.9% were female of which 32.7% were

RM/FCB fans and 67.3% were fans of other teams (see appendix 6).

Figure 4.1: Count of respondents by gender and team.

The main reason why the majority of respondents are male may rely on their higher

degree of sports fandom in comparison with females (Dietz-Uhler et al., 2000) which

lead them to be more interested in answering a questionnaire related to watching

sport. As well, regarding the Sport Scale Identification Scale, males seem to be

RM$FCB!

Others!

Male,!24!

Male,!51!

Female,!11!

Female,!21!



psychologically more committed to their team than females as shown in figure 4.2.

However, these results showing a gap in team identification levels between males

and females must be cautiously considered since some previous studies (e.g.

Branscombe and Wann, 1991; Wann and Branscombe, 1993; or Wann and Schrader,

2000) did not find any difference between males and females. After carrying out a

Mann-Whitney test (see appendix 7), the results show that there is no statistically

significant difference in the SSIS scores of males and females since p=.000.

Figure 4.2: SSIS by gender (%).

Questions Q3 Final SSIS (Sport Spectator Identification Scale): See Codebook

(appendix 4).

Level of Team Identification. Scale: From 1=’Not Identified at all’ to 5=’Extremely

Identified’

Male!

Female!

4%!

15%!18%!

8%!

19%!16%!

16%!

4%!

16%!

32%!

26%!

10%! 10%!

0%! 0%!

6%!



The age structure of the respondents illustrates a fairly normal distribution (see

appendix 8). People ranging in age from 31 to 55 years represented 81.31% of all

respondents.

Figure 4.3: Distribution of respondents by age range (count of respondents).

4.2 Analysis of the relationship between Team Identification and the perception on general Competitive Balance.

The objective number 3 (see section 1.3) was to learn about the possible influence

that the level of psychological fans’ commitment to their teams could have in their

perception of general Competitive Balance of the Spanish First Division. The results

show that the perception of fans regarding general Competitive Balance is not

influenced in any way by their level of team identification measured with the Sports

Spectator Identification Scale (SSIS).

2!

4!

6!

12!

15!

27!

22!

11!

2!

2!

2!

2!

<=!20!21!$!25!26!$!30!31!$!35!36!$!40!41!$!45!46!$!50!51!$!55!56!$!60!61!$!65!66!$!70!

71+!



Table 4.1: Crosstabulation SSIS scores and general CB (Question 13).

Count of respondents

''In general, I consider that La Liga is rather...''

Total Totally

Imbalanced Quite

Imbalanced

Neither balanced

nor imbalanced

Quite Balanced

SSIS Not Identified at all 7 0 1 0 8 Very Lowly Identified 17 4 0 0 21 Lowly Identified 8 11 1 1 21 Lowly to Moderately Identified 5 4 0 0 9 Moderately Identified 8 8 1 0 17 Moderately to Highly Identified 7 5 0 0 12 Highly Identified 9 3 0 0 12 Very Highly Identified 4 0 1 0 5

Total 65 35 4 1 105

Figure 4.4: Crosstabulation SSIS scores and general CB (Question 13) (count of

respondents).

Questions Q13: ‘In general I consider that La Liga is rather…’

Scale: 1= Totally Imbalanced; 5= Totally Balanced

Questions Q3FinalSSIS (Sport Spectator Identification Scale): See Codebook appendix 4

Scale: 1=Not Identified at all; 5=Extremely Identified

Not!IdentiFied!at!all!

Very!Lowly!IdentiFied!

Lowly!IdentiFied!

Lowly!to!Moderately!IdentiFied!

Moderately!IdentiFied!

Moderately!to!Highly!IdentiFied!

Highly!IdentiFied!

Very!Highly!IdentiFied!

7!

17!

8!

5!

8!7!

9!

4!

0!

4!

11!

4!

8!

5!

3!

0!1!

0!1!

0!1!

0! 0!1!

0! 0!1!

0! 0! 0! 0! 0!

Totally!Imbalanced! Quite!Imbalanced! Neither!balanced!nor!imbalanced! Quite!Balanced!



As shown in table 4.1 and figure 4.4, no relationship between the SSIS variable and

the perception of general Competitive Balance could be found. Additionally, a

Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation test was run (see appendix 9) to calculate the

strength of the relationship between these two continuous variables. There was not

correlation between SSIS and perceived general CB [r=.07; n=105; p=.504]. Its

coefficient of determination (r2 = 0.0044) indicates that the degree of Team

Identification only could explain 0.44% of the variance in respondents’ perception of

general Competitive Balance. These variables have not been related in the past by

literature.

Football fans, the more highly identified they are, the more they attend matches and

the more they purchase merchandising (Gau et al., 2009). The researcher, on the

basis of the economic principle of the supply and demand curve (Perloff, 2012), was

expecting that more highly identified fans, would perceive a more imbalanced

competition since they are expending more resources in their teams (purchasing more

merchandising, attending more matches, etc.) and therefore they become more

demanding customers. This could mean that Competitive Balance, even if it is

important for fans, it is not among the most valued attributes in a sport competition.

4.3 Descriptive analysis of the perception on general and one-match Competitive Balance over time.

The following figure shows a summary of the data collected from answers to all sub-

questions included in question 10. Since the objective was to find out the evolution

of the perception of one match Competitive Balance over time, the answers obtained

from sub-questions 10a1 and 10a2 were added together since both sub-questions are

related to the ‘last season’ CB. The same arithmetical operation was applied to 10b1

and 10b2 (both referring 5 years ago CB) and 10c1 and 10c2 (both referring to 10

years ago CB).



Figure 4.5: One match CB perception over time (mean).

Questions Q12a1 to Q12c2: ‘How likely was that Real Madrid or FC Barcelona got

beaten by your team in a single match thinking back…’

Scale: 1= Not a chance; 5= Very likely

As shown in figure 4.5, there is a slight difference in how the fans of RM/FCB and

fans of the rest of the teams perceive how easier or harder has become over time that

their team can beat Real Madrid or FC Barcelona in a single match. According to this

illustration, other teams’ fans perceive a little but progressive decline in the one

match Competitive Balance. On the other hand, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans

do not appreciate a significant difference in the chances that their team has to beat

their most direct rival in a single match over time. This appears to be logical since in

questions Q12a1 to Q12c2 Real Madrid or FC Barcelona fans had to think of beating

each other and historical statistics show that the gap in their sporting potential has

been minimal over the last 30 years (LFP, 2014). As discussed in chapter 2, Real

Madrid and FC Barcelona have won nearly 25 out of the last 30 leagues (LFP, 2014)

and last season their investments in players totalized 61,2% of the total expenditure

of all First Division clubs (Soccerex, 2014). However, it can be concluded that the

overall perception of fans regarding the one-match competitive balance does not

reflect the real level of Competitive Balance in the Spanish football First Division.

RM/FCB!

RM/FCB!

RM/FCB!

Other!

Other!

Other!

10!years!

5!years! last!season!

10!years!


3.37! 3.22! 3.22! 3.32!2.92!

2.48!



On the other hand, the perception of non-RM/FCB fans seems to be more supportive

to the findings of Berger (2013) when he studied the observed short-term

Competitive Balance in the European top leagues. Short-term Uncertainty of

Outcome has had a clear decreasing tendency in the Spanish League as seen in figure

4.6.

(Berger, 2013)

Figure 4.6: One match CB trend from 2006 to 2011.

However, this conclusion must be prudently considered since most of the non-

RM/FCB fans participating in the survey were Valencia CF fans, historical underdog

that, in the early 2000s was very successful by winning two Spanish Leagues and

even qualifying for the final of the Champions League twice in a row. This would

explain why in the ‘10 years ago’ Competitive Balance, there is practically no

difference between the perception between the two groups of fans.

On the other hand, the trend of general perception of Competitive Balance among

fans (question 11) differs from the one match Competitive Balance perception as

shown in figure 4.7.



Figure 4.7: General CB perception over time (mean)

Questions Q11a to Q11c: ‘How would you rate the general degree of suspense

about the outcome of La Liga thinking back…?’

Scale: 1= Not suspense at all; 5= Maximum suspense

Having a look at the ‘10 years ago’ general Competitive Balance perception, the

‘other fans’ give it a quite high score even overcoming RM/FCB fans score. Again,

the reason may be the period of success of Valencia CF those years. The score of

‘last season’ general Competitive Balance perception being quite high in both groups

of fans is completely normal since Atlético de Madrid was the final winner of the

competition.

General Competitive Balance perception measured in this study includes perceptions

in the short, medium and long-term Competitive Balance. Some sub-battles inside

the competition could influence the general Competitive Imbalance perception of

non-RM/FCB fans. This is the case of the Uncertainty outcome for the qualification

for the European competitions or the fight to avoid relegation (Berger, 2013).

RM/FCB!

RM/FCB!

RM/FCB!

Other!

Other!

Other!

10!years!


10!years!


2.74! 2.57!

3.17! 3.14!

2.54!2.88!



(Berger, 2013)

Figure 4.8: Trend of excitement to qualify for the UEFA Champions League in the

top European football leagues between seasons 2006/07 and 2011/12.

(Berger, 2013)

Figure 4.9: Trend of excitement to avoid relegation in the top European football

leagues between seasons 2006/07 and 2011/12.



But again, it can be concluded that in general, perceived general Competitive

Balance by fans does not reflect the high level of Imbalance of La Liga.

4.4 Analysis of the relationship between the perception on general Competitive Balance and the decline in football direct consumption.

Table 4.2: Correlation between perceived general CB (Q13) and decline in football

direct consumption variables (Q12a to Q12e).

!General'CB'perception'(question'13)'

!r' n' p'

Coef.'of'determination'

Decline'in'going'to'the'Stadium'(Q12a)' .094! 107! 0.335! 0.009!Decline'in'watching'matches'on'TV'at'home'(Q12b)' .047! 106! 0.636! 0.002!Decline'in'watching'matches'on'TV'in'a'pub'(Q12c)' .094! 105! 0.342! 0.009!Decline'in'watching'matches'Onlline'(Q12d)' .075! 103! 0.452! 0.006!Decline'in'listening'to'the'matches'on'the'radio'(Q12e)' .095! 106! 0.331! 0.009!

Since several authors ensure that there is an effect of the degree of Competitive

Balance in fans’ consuming behavior, and especially in attendance to the stadiums

(e.g. Villa et al., 2011; Bahram et al., 2012; Montes et al., 2014), the researcher

expected to find a relationship between the level of general Competitive Imbalance

perceived by fans and their decline in direct football consumption. However, as

presented in table 4.2, the results from Spearman’s Rank Order correlation tests show

no correlation between those variables since all Spearman’s correlation coefficients

(r) between general perceived Competitive Balance (question 13) and the decline in

every direct football consumption variable (questions 12a to 12e) are lower than .10.

Additionally, the direction of the relationship between perceived general Competitive

Balance and decline in direct consumption variables is positive when it was expected

to be negative (see appendix 10 for further details).



4.5 Descriptive analysis of football direct consumption and the decline in football direct consumption.

4.5.1 Football direct consumption

As expected, watching the matches at home on the television is the most common

direct consumption of football in Spain as shown in figure 4.10, being attending the

matches at the stadium the last one. According to the CSD (Spanish Sports Council,

2014) more than 50% of the Spanish population ever or hardly ever attends live

sports events.

Figure 4.10: Football direct consumption behaviour among fans (mean).

Questions Q6b to Q6f: ‘During the season, how closely do you follow your team

through…’

Scale: 1= Never; 5= Very often

RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others!

Going!to!the!Stadium!

Watching!the!match!on!TV!at!

home!

Watching!the!match!on!TV!in!a!

pub!

Watching!the!match!Online!

Listening!to!the!match!on!the!Radio!

1.40!1.74!

2.84!2.58!

1.91! 1.94! 1.97! 1.94!1.75!

1.99!



Table 4.3: Breakdown of sports Media consumption in Spain.

Source: Llopis-Goig, 2014

As shown in table 4.3, Television leads the way how Spanish spectators consume

sports, mostly football, in Spain.

The general behaviour of football direct consumption is similar for both groups of

fans. However, it is worth noticing the difference between both groups of fans

regarding attendance and watching the match on TV. While RM/FCB fans watch

more the matches at home than the rest of fans do, these tend to go more to the

stadium than the first ones. Regarding the consumption through television, the table

presented below demonstrates the importance that football and particularly Real

Madrid and FC Barcelona represent for the general TV audience in Spain.



Table 4.4: The most-viewed TV programmes from 1997 to 2010

Source: Llopis-Goig, 2014

According to the sports newspaper Marca.com (2013), matches where Real Madrid

or FC Barcelona is playing represent by far the highest football TV audiences as

shown in figure 4.11.

(Marca.com, 2013)

Figure 4.11: Football TV audiences’ season 2011-2012.



Logically, since matches of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are more frequently

broadcast through the Television, their fans have more chances to watch their team

on TV and therefore some fans do not need to go to the stadium to watch the

matches.

Tickets prices represent another factor that can make some Real Madrid and FC

Barcelona fans stay home watching the match rather than going to the stadium. As an

example, during the season 2012-2013, while in Mestalla, Valencia CF’s stadium,

the highest single ticket cost 66.48 euros, in the Nou Camp, FC Barcelona’s stadium,

the same ticket cost 247.64 euros and Real Madrid fans had to pay 494.45 euros in

the Bernabeu Stadium (Futbolfinanzas.com, 2013).

Finally, it is worth noticing that in this sample, there are Real Madrid and FC

Barcelona fans that actually do not live in Madrid or Barcelona which makes them

harder to attend the stadium when their teams play at home. In contrast, most of the

other fans are Valencia CF fans that currently live in Valencia, and thus, their

chances to attend the home matches of their team are higher.

4.5.2 Decline in football direct consumption.

Figure 4.12 shows that in this sample fans supporting other teams rather than Real

Madrid or FC Barcelona argue that the lack of Competitive Balance has influenced

their football direct consumption in a greater degree than RM/FCB fans with the

exception of attendance to the stadium where the scores remained equivalent.

However, these conclusions must not greatly be considered since the results of the

Spearman’s correlation test in section 4.4 show no correlation between general CB

perception and decline in football direct consumption.



Figure 4.12: Decline in football direct consumption behaviour among fans (mean)

Questions Q12a to Q12e: ‘If you perceive that there was not enough degree of

suspense about the outcome of La Liga over the last decade, has this perception

stopped you from…’

Scale: 1= Not at all; 5= Very much

A perceived deficiency of Competitive Balance in La Liga seems to affect in the

same intensity the willingness to go to the stadium in both groups of fans as

displayed in figure 4.12. However, the perceived imbalance seems to further

influence non-RM/FCB fans in the other football direct consumption behaviors.

Again, these conclusions are not definite since no relationship between perceived

general CB and decline in direct consumption variables have been found. In the next

section, perceived general CB between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans, and the

rest of the fans will be analyzed.

RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others! RM/!FCB! Others!

Going!to!the!Stadium!

Watching!the!match!on!TV!at!

home!

Watching!the!match!on!TV!in!a!

pub!

Watching!the!match!Online!

Listening!to!the!match!on!the!

Radio!

2.20! 2.24!

1.80!

2.34!

1.79!

2.30!1.91!

2.26!1.94!

2.39!



4.6 Comparison of the perception on general Competitive Balance between FC Barcelona-Real Madrid fans and the rest of fans.

Table 4.5: Mean of perceived general CB of the sample.

Totally'Imbalanced' 1'MEAN'SAMPLE' 1.43'Quite'Imbalanced' 2'Neither'Balanced'nor'Imbalanced' 3'

Quite'Balanced' 4'Totally'Balanced' 5'

Question 13: ‘In general I consider that La Liga is rather…’

Scale: 1= Totally Imbalanced; 5= Totally Balanced

As shown in table 4.5, general perceived CB in the Spanish First Division scores

1.43 among all respondents.

To compare the perceived general Competitive Balance in the Spanish league among

Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans on the one hand and the same perceived

Competitive Balance among fans of other teams on the other hand, a Mann-Witney

U Test was used with the data resulting from questions 13 and 16. From this data, it

can be concluded that the perceived general CB among Real Madrid and FC

Barcelona fans is slightly higher than among fans of other teams but it is not

statistically significant (U(105)=1216.500; Z=-.341; and p=.733 >.05). In sum,

respondents perceive a high level of general imbalance in the Spanish league;

however, there is no statistically significant difference in the general CB perception

of RM/FCB fans and other fans (for further details see appendix 11).



As reviewed in chapter 2, the Spanish football first division is highly imbalanced

since Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have won more than 80% of the last 30 leagues

(BDFUTBOL, 2014). In addition, the difference regarding investments in players

(Soccerex, 2014) and the revenues (Deloitte, 2014) make La Liga even more

imbalanced over time (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005; Ehrhardt et al., 2009;

Pawlowski et al., 2010). As expected, the general perceived CB by fans in this

sample reflects the real situation of disequilibrium in the Spanish football First

Division.

In sum, all fans seem to be aware of the high level of imbalance in the Spanish

league. This does not mean that they would be happier perceiving a higher

Competitive Balance as is analysed in the next chapter.

4.7 Comparison of the wish for having a balanced competition between FC Barcelona-Real Madrid fans and the rest of fans.

Literature has widely written about the convenience or not of Competitive Balance in

sports competitions, from a standpoint generally focusing on the offer side, which is

the same than focusing on Competitive Balance statistics and the measures applied or

suggested to maintain or increase that CB. Few marketing-related studies have been

carried out in order to examine fans’ feelings and perceptions (Pawlowski, 2013)

regarding Competitive Balance, and no study has been carry out to find out what fans

would prefer in terms of Competitive Balance in a competition.

The researcher has collected data from Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans on the

one hand and from fans of other teams on the other hand to demonstrate that

Competitive Balance is not always that appreciated among fans since the fans of

teams that are used to win want to maintain that status of privilege.



To analyse if it is relevant the different degree of desire of Competitive Balance

between the two groups of fans, a Mann-Whitney U test has been applied for

questions 14 and 16. From this data, it can be concluded that the wish of Competitive

Balance among Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans is lower than among fans of

other teams and this difference is statistically significant (U(105)=876.500; Z=-

.2.860; and p=.004 <.05) (for further details see appendix 12).

As expected, RM/FCB fans perceive a similar level of general Imbalance in the

Spanish league than the rest of the fans, yet they are more reluctant to accept a

perfect balance in the Spanish league (see table 4.6) since their position of

dominance could be threatened. On the other hand, most fans like the excitement that

they experience when they witness a match where Real Madrid of FC Barcelona can

be beaten by a weaker team (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005). A more balanced

league would probably reduce this level of excitement since weak teams would have

more chances to beat the big clubs.

Another important reference to theory that must be considered is the aggregate wish

of Competitive Balance among fandom (Szymanski, 2001). Even though non-Real

Madrid and non-FC Barcelona fans seem to desire a more balanced competition

which is consistent with the widespread thinking of the need of a reasonable level of

Competitive Balance in all sports competitions, due to the great fandoms of Real

Madrid and FC Barcelona, the wish of all fans taken together probably goes in the

opposite direction. Furthermore, the wish of a certain degree of Competitive Balance

could vary over time since Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans could get tired of

winning if Competitive Balance progressively decreases in the future.



Table 4.6: Wish of a perfect balance in the Spanish league (mean)

Question 14: ‘I want my team to have as many chances as any other team to win

La Liga’

Scale: 1= I totally disagree; 5= I totally agree

Question 16: ‘Which is your preferred Spanish football team?’

Scale: 1= RM or FCB; 2= Other

4.8 Descriptive analysis of the measures preferred among fans to increase Competitive Balance.

Figure 4.13: Preferred proposed measures to increase CB (mean)

Salary!Caps! TV!rights!sharing!

Ownership!rules!

3.91!

4.32!

3.64!

I!totally!disagree! 1'I!disagree! 2'Neither!I!agree!nor!disagree! 3'

FCB/RM'fans'B!I!agree' 4'Other'fans' 4.61'' 'I!totally!agree! 5'



Questions Q15a, Q15b, and Q15c: ‘What could the Spanish Football Federation

(RFEF) consider to make La Liga more balanced?’

Measures: Salary Caps – TV rights sharing – Ownership rules

Scale: 1= Certainly Not; 5= Certainly Yes

Overall, respondents mostly agreed that the Spanish Football Federation should

adopt the three measures proposed in the questionnaire (questions 15a, 15b and 15c)

in order to increase Competitive Balance in the Spanish league.

In all the most important football leagues, including the Italian Serie A since 2010,

the TV broadcasting rights are negotiated collectively. In contrast, La Liga TV rights

still are being negotiated individually (Gortazar, 2012) which allows Real Madrid

and FC Barcelona to bargain greater amounts of money from TV broadcasters

without any limitation. League administrators have not taken any measure to stop the

increasing financial imbalance in the competition largely due to the current TV rights

distribution system; however, fans seem to be aware of the problem and demand a

fairer TV broadcasting rights distribution as shown in figure 4.13. Figure 4.14

displays the enormous difference in TV rights revenues received by Real Madrid or

FC Barcelona and the rest of clubs in season 2012-13. Due to the increasing financial

gap between these two clubs and the rest of clubs in La Liga, the difference

perceived from TV broadcasters will be even greater in the future if the TV

bargaining system remains individual.



(Wanderers, 2013)

Figure 4.14: TV Broadcasting revenues per club in La Liga, season 2012-13.

A seen in figure 4.13, Salary Caps is the second measure most valued by the

respondents and the favourite one in literature to improve balance in sports

competitions (e.g. Kesanne, 2000; Leeds and Von Allmen, 2004; Szymanski and

Zimbalist, 2005). This seems to be working efficiently in the German Bundesliga and

it has historically been used in American sports as a way to stop some of the best

players to move to the clubs where they can achieve higher salaries. In Europe,

besides Real Madrid and FC Barcelona some clubs of the English Premier league pay

the greatest wages and this is why over the last years the number of foreign players

in England has dramatically increased involving the highest amount of foreign

players among the top European leagues (Gibson, 2014).

The third most valued measure among those proposed in this survey is Ownership

rules. As an example, all clubs should be majority owned by their members as a way

to increase loyalty among local fans, to avoid investors’ speculation, and to stop



irresponsible and disproportionate investments in players which in turn leads to a

further Competitive Imbalance. Nevertheless, Ehrhardt et al. (2009) describe as

‘questionable’ the effectiveness of this measure in improving Competitive Balance.

Actually, in the German Bundesliga, this measure also known as the 50+1 rule does

not seem to have a positive effect in the Competitive Balance since Bayern Munich

have also being exercising a position of clear dominance over their domestic

competitors over the last 30 years (Worldfootball.net, 2014b). In the Spanish league,

this rule does not appear to be promising either since there are four clubs, Real

Madrid and FC Barcelona among them, that are totally owned by their members and

this fact has not stopped the two wealthiest clubs from investing exorbitant amounts

of money in players. This means that a 50+1 rule may only work properly in Spain

firstly by enforcing all clubs to follow the same rule and secondly by setting

investments limitations, a firmer financial supervision and stricter sanctions to

administrators’ misbehaviour. According to Szymanski and Zimbalist (2005),

football clubs have an incentive to spend more than they have since their sporting

objective is on top of their economic ones. This situation along with bad club

management has lead to higher imbalanced competitions.



Figure 4.15: Other measures proposed by respondents to increase CB (count)

Questions Q15d (open): ‘What could the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF)

consider to make La Liga more balanced? If you think of others, please specify’

Codification: see appendix 5.

Twenty-nine additional suggestions to increase Competitive Balance were collected

from respondents that were narrowed down into 11 further measures (see figure

4.15).

The most suggested measure among respondents (7) is to establish the same

limitation in all clubs’ budgets for investments in players and coaches. In Europe,

football clubs are allowed to invest whatever they want to hire the best players or

coaches. Over the last years, many Spanish clubs almost went into bankrupt (Garcia

3!

6!

1!

7!

2!

2!

1!

1!

1!

4!

1!

To!lower!football!importance!

To!ensure!equal!Fiscal!treatment!

To!share!All!revenues!equally!

To!limit!budgets!equally!

Drafts!and!similar!

To!enforce!same!rules!to!all!teams!

To!promote!Local!Fan!IdentiFication!

To!exclude!RM!and!FCB!from!La!Liga!

To!distribute!TV!Rights!according!to!the!standings!

To!have!referees!be!impartial!

To!pay!variable!salaries!



and Rodriguez, 2003) since they spent more money than they should by mostly

thinking of maximizing their sporting achievements rather than getting benefits

(Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005). Limiting clubs’ budgets would go in the same

direction than the measures applied in some American professional leagues where

clubs that overpass the investments’ limitations are overtaxed and those ‘luxury’

taxes are then redistributed among the low-revenue clubs in form of revenue sharing

(Leeds and Von Allmen, 2004). However, budget limitations would probably reduce

the chances of the wealthiest clubs in a domestic league such as La Liga to be

successful in the European competitions. In American sports they do not have this

problem since clubs are not playing national and international competitions at the

same time. As a consequence, in Europe, budgets’ limitations of clubs could be

rather set by supranational organisms such as UEFA or FIFA to balance not only

domestic competitions but the international ones as well.

The second most common measure to balance the competition proposed by

respondents (6) is to ensure an equal fiscal treatment to all clubs. Therefore, some

Spanish fans seem to have the perception that the Spanish authorities do not treat in

the same way all clubs participating in La Liga. Actually, big clubs such as Real

Madrid and FC Barcelona obtain favorable treatment from local and national

authorities (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005). Establishing clear financial rules and

enforcing all clubs the same fiscal treatment without any distinction should improve

Competitive Balance.

The third measure suggested by respondents (4) implies that an alleged favoritism of

the referees for the wealthiest clubs in the Spanish league should be fixed. However,

there is not empirical evidence of this favorable treatment to these two big clubs. On

the other hand, as Garicano et al. (2001) and Dohmen (2008) state referees are

influenced by social pressure, which makes them favour the teams playing at home

in different ways. Buraimo et al. (2011) added to this statement that referees award



with less yellow cards local players when there is running tracks between the pitch

and the spectators. Montes and Sala (2009) and Page and Page (2010) also argue that

not all referees seem to be influenced by the crowds in the same degree and then they

do not have such influence in the final results. Therefore, it is logical to think that the

more people attend the stadium the more pressure the referee has to cope. FC

Barcelona’s Camp Nou and Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu are the biggest

stadiums in Spain and their attendance are the highest as well. As a consequence,

referees could logically feel more social pressure and, as a consequence, have a

further influence in the final results of the matches that take place in those two

stadiums.

Another measure to improve CB, proposed by 3 respondents, is to lower the

importance of football which probably could lead to lower investments and less

abuse of a dominant position in the Spanish entertainment industry. However, this

does not appear to be a realistic suggestion since that would mean to go against what

the market demands. Among the rest of suggestions, it is worth mentioning ‘to

promote local fan identification’ since it is a brilliant strategy to stop local fans from

becoming gloryhunters, moving their commitment to the most successful clubs. This

measure could help to balance somehow fandoms among teams.

Finally, only 1 respondent suggested ‘to exclude Real Madrid and FC Barcelona’

from La Liga. This measure would run in harmony with the idea of creating a

European supranational competition where clubs participating in it could not

participate in their domestic league (Hoehn and Szymanski, 1999; Dobson and

Goddard, 2001; Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2005). With no doubt, La Liga would be

more balance without them.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations


Chapter 5

Conclusion and recommendations

5.1 Conclusion

Both competitive balance and fandom have been widely researched and analysed in

the sports literature. However, most of the previous studies carried out in order to

analyse the short, medium and long-term Competitive Balance are based on concrete,

statistical and measurable collected data. In contrast, this dissertation has focused its

analysis on the perceptions of football fans, which are the raison d’être of

professional football.

The Spanish First Division football league, La Liga, has been broadly dominated by

two clubs, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, throughout the history of professional

football in Spain as it is presented and discussed in chapter 2. As a consequence,

there exists a commonly held view that La Liga is imbalanced. This paper has

analysed and compared the level of perceived general Competitive Balance in La

Liga of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona fans on the one side, and the fans of the rest

of the Spanish football clubs on the other side. Results show that fans perceive a high

degree of imbalance no matter which team they are fans of. No significant difference

has been found between both groups of fans. Therefore, fans’ perception of the lack

of Competitive Balance in La Liga reflects an increasing competitive imbalance

evidenced in the number of championships won by Real Madrid and FC Barcelona

since the beginning of the competition (BDFUTBOL, 2014) and particularly in the

last 30 years (LFP, 2014).



In contrast, when asked about their perception of the degree of ‘suspense’ over time,

in general fans appear to be quite happy with the level of Uncertainty of Outcome.

This conclusion must be carefully considered due to the timing of data collection

since football fans’ perceptions can be influenced by the fact that neither Real

Madrid nor FC Barcelona won the last league. It cannot be generalised either to all

Spanish football fandom since the majority of respondents were fans of Valencia CF,

club considered as an historical underdog that had some very successful seasons a

decade ago. On the other hand, only non-Real Madrid/FC Barcelona fans appear to

perceive a slight decrease in the one-match competitive balance over time.

At the beginning of each season, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are more likely to

win La Liga than the rest of the clubs because of the imbalance of the competition.

Supposedly, the more balanced the competition would be, the less chances Real

Madrid or FC Barcelona would have of winning. The researcher has measured how

intense is the fans’ desire for having a balanced competition comparing the answers

given by Real Madrid or FC Barcelona fans with the responses received from fans

supporting other teams. The result indicates firstly that both groups of fans would

prefer a more balanced competition and secondly, although the gap is not as big as

expected, there is a statistically significant difference that explains that fans of other

clubs rather than Real Madrid or FC Barcelona would be more willing to have a

more balanced competition than RM and FCB fans. Football administrators should

adjust Competitive Balance in order to have La Liga‘s offer meet what fans demand.

In addition, the level of team identification of respondents has been calculated

following the Sports Spectator Identification Scale (SSIS) in order to determine

whether or not this factor is relevant when perceiving the degree of Competitive

Balance. Highly identified sports fans have a higher consumption of services and

products offered by their clubs than those less identified and therefore they would be

supposed to be more exigent regarding the products and services they consume,



including the league competition as a whole. However, no cause-effect relationship

has been found between these two variables meaning that Competitive Balance

probably is not among the most valued attributes that football fans are expecting

from La Liga.

In addition, the decline in direct football consumption has also been related to the

perception of fans regarding their level of Competitive Balance in order to learn to

what extent they stop making direct consumption in football due to their perception

of lack of balance in La Liga. No correlation has been detected between these

variables meaning that fans have not significantly changed their direct consumption

behaviours due to their perception of disequilibrium in La Liga.

Finally, since Competitive Imbalance is a fact in the Spanish league, this work has

gathered respondents’ appraisals about the different measures to turn around this

situation. Respondents generally agree that some measures need to be undertaken in

order to improve CB in La Liga. The results show as expected that among the three

proposed, sharing TV revenues is the most popular measure that administrators

should consider since TV rights still are individually negotiated in Spain. Salary caps

and the establishment of ownership rules are also suggested.

5.2 Recommendations

No relation has been found between Team Identification and perceived Competitive

Balance. However, further research is suggested since it may be possible to find a

relationship between Perceived Competitive Balance, wish of a balanced competition

and Sports Motivation. Sports fans that follow sports because of aesthetics or

economic reasons would probably not consider Competitive Balance as much as



local fans do. In the same way that Competitive Balance may not be desired by the

majority of the Spanish fans because of the likely loss of chances to win of the two

wealthiest clubs, the aggregate wish of Competitive Balance should be analysed as

well depending on fans motivations to follow the Spanish league.

This study has explored the decline of direct football consumption related to the

decrease of the perceived Competitive Balanced in the competition. Further surveys

will be able to extent the analysis of this relation to football indirect consuming

behaviors of fans such as purchasing merchandising, following sports shows and

talks, playing sports videogames, etc. Sports administrators, sponsors and advertisers

should monitor this relation in order to maintain professional football profitability

and fans’ interest in the long term.

In the same vein, general Competitive Balance perceptions over time should be

watched on a regular basis. Fans behaviours depend on perceptions rather than facts.

Empirical data of Competitive Balance and perceived Competitive Balanced should

be analysed and compared to allow administrators and marketers to make the

necessary adjustments any time.

The results of this research show a higher perceived imbalance in the one-match

dispute than in the general competition. Among Spanish football fans, it is common

to hear that for some fans there is nothing more important to them than witness how

their team beat Real Madrid and FC Barcelona when they play each other. It would

be interesting for marketers if future researches analyse the level of excitement of

non-Real Madrid/FC Barcelona fans when their team can beat one of these two teams

in comparison with their level of excitement when their team are able to achieve their

sporting objectives.



Finally, in order to improve Competitive Balance in La Liga, it is worth highlighting

two further measures proposed by the respondents that should be taken into account

by La Liga administrators. The first one, budget limitations, is already undertaken in

some American sports, and the second one, an equal fiscal treatment, implying that

some clubs have been treated by public authorities in a laxer way than others despite

their serious financial situation.

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XI

Appendix 1: Questionnaire in English.

(Place!an''X'!in!the!box!of!your!choice)'

1- Gender

Male Female

2- Age

' years'old.'

' '

' ' ' ' ' ' '3- How important is it to you that your team wins?

Not'important' Very'important'

4- How strongly do you see YOURSELF as a fan of your team?

Not'fan'at'all' Very'much'fan'

5- How strongly do your FRIENDS see you as a fan of your team?

Not'fan'at'all' Very'much'fan'

6- During the season, how closely do you follow your team through either TV, radio, online, newspaper, through contact with other fans, and so on?

a) …In general?

Never/Almost'never' Very'often'

b) …going to the stadium?


c)… watching the matches on TV at home?


d) …watching the matches on TV in a pub?


e) …watching the matches online?


f) …listening to the matches on the Radio?

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XII


7- How important is to YOU to be a fan of your team?

Not'important'at'all' Very'important'

8- How much do you dislike your team's greatest rivals?

Do'not'dislike' Dislike'very'much'

9- How often do you display your team's name at your place of work, where you live or on your clothing?

Never' Very'often'

10- How likely was that Real Madrid or FC Barcelona got beaten by your team in a single match thinking back to ... (If you support Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, think about beating each other)

a) … the last season?

a1- Your team playing home.

Not'a'chance' Very'likely'

a2- Your team playing away


b) … five years ago?

b1- Your team playing home.


b2- Your team playing away


c) … ten years ago?

c1- Your team playing home.


c2- Your team playing away


Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XIII

11- How would you rate the general degree of suspense about the outcome of La Liga thinking back to...?

a) … the last season?

No'suspense'at'all' Maximum'suspense'

b) … five years ago?


c) …ten years ago?


12- If you perceive that there was not enough degree of suspense about the outcome of La Liga over the last decade, has this perception stopped you from…

a) …going to the stadium?

Not'at'all' Very'much'

b)… watching the matches on TV at home?


c) …watching the matches on TV in a pub?


d) …watching the matches online?


e) …listening to the matches on the Radio?


13- 'In general, I consider that 'La Liga' is rather….

Imbalanced' Balanced'

Note: "In a perfectly balanced contest, each participant starts with an equal chance of winning, so that the outcome will be completely uncertain" (Szimanski, 2001)

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XIV

14- 'I want my team to have as many chances as any other team to win La Liga'

Not'agree'at'all' Totally'agree'

15- What could the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) consider to make La Liga more balanced?

a) Salary caps (establish the same limit of salaries for every team)

Certainly'not' Certainly'yes'

b) TV rights sharing (Collective negotiation of La Liga with TV broadcasters and more equitative distribution of TV rights)


c) Ownership rules (e.g.majority of shares belonging to clubs' members)


d) If you think of others, please specify:

16- Which is your preferred Spanish football team? ONLY 1 TEAM (Place an X in case you choose either RM or FCB)

R. MADRID '

'

FC. BARCELONA '

'

IF OTHER, SPECIFY: ' ' '

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XV

Appendix 2: Questionnaire in Spanish.

(Pon!una''X'!en!la!casilla!que!corresponda!)'

1- Sexo Hombre

Mujer

2- Edad

'

años'' ' '' ' ' ' ' ' '

3- Es importante para tí que tu equipo gane?

No'es'importante' Muy'importante'

4- Cuánta afición por tu equipo crees TÚ que tienes?

Nada'de'afición' Mucha'afición'

5- Cuánta afición por tu equipo creen TUS AMIGOS que tienes?

Nada'de'afición' Mucha'afición'

6- Durante la temporada, con qué frecuencia sigues a tu equipo por TV, radio, online, prensa, compartiendo con otros seguidores, etc.?

a) …en general?

Nunca/Casi'nunca' Muy'a'menudo'

b) …yendo al campo?


c)… viendo los partidos por TV en casa?


d) …viendo los partidos por TV en un bar?


e) …viendo los partidos online?


f) … escuchando los partidos por la radio?


7- Es importante para tí ser seguidor de tu equipo?

Nada'importante' Muy'importante'

8- Cuánto te desagradan los seguidores de los mayores rivales de tu equipo?

No'me'desagradan' Me'desagradan'mucho'

9-Con qué frecuencia muestras el nombre de tu equipo en casa, en el trabajo, o en la ropa que llevas puesta?

Nunca' Muy'a'menudo'

10- Qué posibilidades tenía tu equipo de ganar a un solo partido a Real Madrid or FC Barcelona si piensas en... (Si eres seguidor del R.Madrid o del FC Barcelona, piensa en el otro equipo)

a) … la pasada temporada? a1- Tu equipo jugando de local.

Ninguna'posibilidad' Muchas'posibilidades'

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XVI

a2- Tu equipo jugando de visitante.


b) … hace 5 años? b1- Tu equipo jugando de local.


b2- Tu equipo jugando de visitante.


c) … hace 10 años? c1- Tu equipo jugando de local.


c2- Tu equipo jugando de visitante.


11- Cómo valorarías el nivel general de suspense sobre el resultado final de La Liga si piensas en…

a) … la pasada temporada?

Nada'de'suspense' Suspense'Máximo'

b) … hace 5 años?


c) …hace 10 años?


12- Un nivel inferior de suspense al ideal en la liga ha hecho durante la ultima decada, que dejes de…

a) …ir al campo?

En'absoluto' Mucho'

b)… ver los partidos por TV?

En'absoluto' Mucho'

c) …ver los partidos en un bar?

En'absoluto' Mucho'

d) …ver los partidos online?

En'absoluto' Mucho'

e) … escuchar los partidos por la radio?

En'absoluto' Mucho'

13- 'En general, considero que la Liga está más bien…'

Desequilibrada Equilibrada

Nota: "En una competición totalmente equilibrada, cada participante comienza con la misma posibilidad de ganar, con lo que el resultado final es completamente incierto". Traducción de un

texto de Szimanski (2001)

14- 'Quiero que mi equipo tenga las mismas posibilidades que cualquier otro equipo en La Liga'

Totalmente'en'desacuerdo' Totalmente'de'acuerdo'

15- Qué podría considerar la RFEF (Real Federación Española de Fútbol) para hacer la Liga más equilibrada?

a) Topes Salariales (establecer el mismo límite para todos los clubs)

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XVII


b) Derechos de TV compartidos (Negociación Colectiva de La Liga con las cadenas de TV y distribución más equitativa de los derechos entre los clubes)


c) Regulación de la propiedad (ej: mayoría de las acciones en poder de los socios)


d) Si se te ocurre otra medida, especifica:

16- Cuál es tu equipo preferido en La Liga? SÓLO UN EQUIPO

R. MADRID '

'FC. BARCELONA '

' ' ' 'SI ES OTRO, ESPECIFICA:

' '

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XVIII

Appendix 3: ‘Privacy and confidentiality’ message.

In English

Subject e-mail: Questionnaire about football. Very short. It’s for my dissertation.

Facebook group name: Questionnaire about football. Very short. It’s for my dissertation.

Text: Dear friends, I need you to take just 5 minutes of your time to answer this questionnaire. Since it is about football these 5 minutes will look alike 1 minute… :)

This questionnaire will belong to the dissertation which is the my last assignment for my master that I am studying in England. There is just 1 requirement to answer this questionnaire: you must have a preferred team in La Liga, that’s all. If you are not interested at all in football or very little, you are also my objective :)

In this survey, I am gathering the perceptions that Spanish football fans have about our Liga.

In this questionnaire, there is any controversial question but I will be the only one to know where the questionnaires are coming from. However, I commit to erase the emails as soon as I download the questionnaires.

But, If you are interested in knowing your team identification level, then let me know in the body of the message before your questionnaire and I will return to you the result of your level of team identification. Thank you very much to everybody. I hope to get a good mark! And I will owe to you in some way, of course!!

In Spanish

Asunto email: Cuestionario de fútbol. Cortito. Es para mi tesis.

Nombre grupo Facebook: Cuestionario de fútbol. Cortito. Es para mi tesis.

Queridos amigos, necesito que dediquéis 5 minutos de vuestro tiempo para rellenar este formulario. Como se trata de fútbol, los 5 minutos os parecerá 1 :)

Necesito este cuestionario para la tesis de mi máster que estoy haciendo en Bournemouth University. Para poder contestarlo, el único requisito es que tenéis que ser seguidor de algún equipo de fútbol de la Primera División Española por encima de todos los demás. Si el fútbol no os interesa casi o nada de nada también me interesan vuestras opiniones :).

Con este cuestionario, estoy tratando de recoger las percepciones que los seguidores de fútbol en España tenemos sobre nuestra liga.

En el cuestionario no hay ni una sola pregunta comprometida. Aún así, las contestaciones las veré sólo yo si me devolvéis el cuestionario por mensaje privado (facebook o e-mail). No obstante, me comprometo a descargar el cuestionario y borrar el email sin anotar de dónde procede.

Sin embargo, contestando este cuestionario, podéis conocer vuestro grado de identificación que tenéis con vuestro equipo. Si queréis saberlo, escribídmelo en el cuerpo del mensaje cuando me enviéis el cuestionario y os lo diré.

Muchas gracias a todos. Espero sacar Buena nota!! Y os la deberé en parte a vosotros, claro que si!! :)

Por favor, rellenad el cuestionario, le dais a guardar y me lo enviáis (sólo una vez…) por e-mail of por mi facebook. Muchas gracias.

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XIX

Appendix 4: Codebook.

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XX

Appendix 5: Coding of question 15d.

Id TOPIC CODE

3Recordar(de(vez(en(cuando(que(al(fin(y(al(cabo(esto(no(es(mas(que(un(juego?(Y(que(lo(bonito(es(ver(jugar(a(un(equipo(juntos,(no(como(una(panda(de(superestrellas, Play+down+importance+of+football 1

4

Que(paguen(sus(deudas(en(las(mismas(condiciones(que(el(resto(de(empresas/sociedades/ciudadanos,(que(al(resto(no(nos(dan(demoras(de(décadas(y(se(gastan(unas(cantidades(insultantes(para(contratar(a(un(individuo(que(va(dando(patadas(a(un(balón.

Equal+fiscal+treatment+to+football+than+any+other+industry

2

5Reparto(equilibrado(de(todos(los(ingresos(de(la(LFP(entre(todos(los(clubes,(incluso,(dando(proporcionalmente(más(dinero(a(los(equipos(pequeños. All+revenues+sharing+(even+more+for+small+clubs)

3

8I(think(football(shoudn´t(be(such(an(issue(in(this(country(and(players(shouldn´t(earn(that(much(money.(It(shoudn´t(received(so(much(coverage.(There(are(other(sports(and(activities(more(worthy(of(our(attention….

Play+down+importance+of+football

1

21 MISMO(PRESUPUESTO(EN(CADA(CLUB(PARA(HACER(FICHAJES(DE(JUGADORES(Y/O(ENTRENADORES. Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally 4

25 Sorteo(de(los(jugadores players+raffle.+Similar+to+draft? 5

27Todos(los(equipos(deberian(estar(sometidos(a(la(misma(normativa(en(materia(mercantil,(fiscal,(laboral(es(decir(o(todos(asociaciones((clubs)(o(todos(sociedades(anónimas(deportivas

Same+requirements+and+rules+for+every+team

6

28sentido(comun(entre(los(aficionados(a(el(futbol.(No(puede(ser(que(en(alguna(comunidad(hayan(mas(afines(al(barsa(y(al(madrid(que(al(propio(equipo(de(la(comundidad.(La(aficion(es(lo(que(manda. Promote+Local+fan+identification

7

34 Que(todos(los(clubes(paguen(las(deudas(que(tienen Same+requirements+and+rules+for+every+team 6

38 0%(de(ayudas(públicas(al(futbol(profesional Equal+fiscal+treatment+to+football+than+any+other+industry 2

43Menos(presupuesto(para(el(fútbol(y(más(para(las(PYMES,(a(las(que(no(se(les(aplazan(las(deudas(con(hacienda(con(tanta(facilidad Equal+fiscal+treatment+to+football+than+any+other+industry

2

48 Devieran(tal(vez(subir(los(impuestos(a(los(jugadores. Equal+fiscal+treatment+to+football+than+any+other+industry 2

51 Quitarle(repercusión(mediática(al(fútbol.(Intentar(que(se(trate(como(un(deporte(y(no(como(espectáculo. Play+down+importance+of+football 1

54Se(apliquen(los(mismos(criterios(de(deuda((Seguridad(Social,(etc)(a(todos(los(equipos(y(no(como(pasa(ahora. Same+requirements+and+rules+for+every+team 6

55 que(no(juegue(Madrid(o(Barca… Exclude+Real+Madrid+and+FC+Barcelona+from+the+Liga 8

57 limitar(el(presupuesto(de(los(equipos( Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally 4

60LA(CLAVE(ES(EL(REPARTO(DE(TV,(SI(SE(REPARTIERA(TAL(COMO(SE(HA(QUEDADO(EN(LIGA,(SERIA(LO(JUSTO TV+Rights+according+position+in+table

9

63 Tope(presupuestario(igual(para(todos(los(equipos.(Similar(a(las(franquicias(de(la(NBA. Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally 4

67Limitar(los(sueldos(de(jugadores(y(técnicos,(que(los(clubs(paguen(lo(que(deben(a(hacienda.(Promocionar(más(la(práctica(y(menos(el(espectáculo. Equal+fiscal+treatment+to+football+than+any+other+industry

2

69 Que(los(árbitros(no(beneficien(siempre((o(casi(siempre)(a(los(mismos. Equal+treatment+referees 10

71Desconozco(el(motivo(pero(ligas(como(la(inglesa(o(la(italiana(son(mucho(mas(competitivas(e(inciertas(en(el(resultado(de(cada(uno(de(los(partidos. No+real+suggestion

0

73 Cobrar(por(partidos(ganados.Topeas(en(los(presupuestos(de(los(clubes. Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally 4

73 Cobrar(por(partidos(ganados.Topeas(en(los(presupuestos(de(los(clubes. Salaries+variable+related+to+victories 11

83 Establecer(un(máximo(de(fichajes Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally 4

84QUE(SE(OBLIGARA(A(TODOS(LOS(EQUIPOS(A(PAGAR(SUS(DEUDAS,(PARA(PODER(VOLVER(A(FICHAR(ALGUN(JUGADOR Equal+fiscal+treatment+to+football+than+any+other+industry

2

88 Menos(corrupcion(arbrital(y(menos(corrupcion(en(la(RFEF Equal+treatment+referees 10

89 Menos(corrupcion(tanto(en(arbritos(como(RFEF Equal+treatment+referees 10

90 Menos(corrupcion(tanto(arbitral(como(en(la(RFEF Equal+treatment+referees 10

95Poner(un(tope(de(dinero(para(comprar(jugadores(extranjeros(y(así(no(habria(esa(diferencia(entre(lo(que(ganan(unos(y(otros. Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally

4

99

QUE(TENGAN(TODOS(LAS(MISMAS(POSIBILIDADES(ECONOMICAS(Y(SI(NO(LLEGAN(ALGUNOS(CLUBES(QUE(PONGAN(UN(TOPE(DE(GASTO(PARA(CADA(DIVISION.PARA(PODER(CONTRATAR(TODOS(LOS(EQUIPOS(A(BUENOS(JUGADORES,SI(NO(SIEMPRE(GANARAN(LOS(MISMOS.(Y(TAMBIEN(SI(ES(POSIBLE(QUE(LOS(MEDIOS(DE(COMUNICACION(HABLEN(DE(TODOS(LOS(EQUIPOS(Y(NO(SOLO(DE(RONALDO(Y(MESSI...(GRACIAS!! Limits+Investments+(players+and+coaches)+equally

4

103 Elección(de(jugadores(tipo(los(Draft(de(la(NBA. players+raffle.+Similar+to+draft? 5

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXI

Appendix 6: Crosstabulation Q1-Q16.

Team. Which is your preferred Spanish

football team?

Total

Real Madrid or

FC Barcelona

Other team

Gender Male Count 24 51 75 Expected Count 24.5 50.5 75.0 % within Gender 32.0% 68.0% 100.0% % within Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team? 68.6% 70.8% 70.1%

% of Total 22.4% 47.7% 70.1% Female Count 11 21 32

Expected Count 10.5 21.5 32.0 % within Gender 34.4% 65.6% 100.0% % within Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team? 31.4% 29.2% 29.9%

% of Total 10.3% 19.6% 29.9% Total Count 35 72 107

Expected Count 35.0 72.0 107.0 % within Gender 32.7% 67.3% 100.0% % within Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team? 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

% of Total 32.7% 67.3% 100.0%

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXII

Appendix 7: Mann-Whitney U Test Q1-Q3finalSSIS.

Ranks

Gender N Mean Rank

Sum of Ranks

SSIS Male 74 60.24 4457.50

Female 31 35.73 1107.50

Total

105

Test Statisticsa

SSIS Mann-Whitney U 611.500 Wilcoxon W 1107.500 Z -3.808 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000 a. Grouping Variable: Gender

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXIII

Appendix 8: Crosstabulation Q2AgeRanges-Q16.

Total

Real(Madrid(or(FC(Barcelona Other(team

Age((Binned)(split(in(intervals <=(20 Count 1 1 2Expected.Count 0.7 1.3 2%.within.Age.(Binned).split.in.intervals 50.00% 50.00% 100.00%%.within.Team..Which.is.your.preferred.Spanish.football.team?2.90% 1.40% 1.90%%.of.Total 0.90% 0.90% 1.90%

21(A(25 Count 0 4 4Expected.Count 1.3 2.7 4%.within.Age.(Binned).split.in.intervals 0.00% 100.00% 100.00%%.within.Team..Which.is.your.preferred.Spanish.football.team?0.00% 5.60% 3.70%%.of.Total 0.00% 3.70% 3.70%

26(A(30 Count 3 3 6Expected.Count 2 4 6%.within.Age.(Binned).split.in.intervals 50.00% 50.00% 100.00%%.within.Team..Which.is.your.preferred.Spanish.football.team?8.60% 4.20% 5.60%%.of.Total 2.80% 2.80% 5.60%









71+ Count 0 2 2Expected.Count 0.7 1.3 2%.within.Age.(Binned).split.in.intervals 0.00% 100.00% 100.00%%.within.Team..Which.is.your.preferred.Spanish.football.team?0.00% 2.80% 1.90%%.of.Total 0.00% 1.90% 1.90%

Total Count 35 72 107Expected.Count 35 72 107%.within.Age.(Binned).split.in.intervals 32.70% 67.30% 100.00%%.within.Team..Which.is.your.preferred.Spanish.football.team?100.00% 100.00% 100.00%%.of.Total 32.70% 67.30% 100.00%

Team.(Which(is(your(preferred(Spanish(football(team?

Age((Binned)(split(in(intervals(*(Team.(Which(is(your(preferred(Spanish(football(team?(Crosstabulation

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXIV

Appendix 9: Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation between SSIS and general CB

perception (question 13).

SSIS ''In general, I consider

that La Liga is rather...'' Spearman's rho

SSIS Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .066

Sig. (2-tailed) .504 N 105 105


Correlation Coefficient .066 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .504 N 105 107

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXV

Appendix 10: Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation between general CB perception

(question 13) and direct football consumption variables (Q12a to Q12e).

General CB perception

Declline in going to the Stadium

Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .094

Sig. (2-tailed) .335

N 107 107



N 107 107


Declline in watching match on TV at home



N 107 106



N 106 106


Declline in watching match on TV in a pub



N 107 105



N 105 105


Declline in watching match Online



N 107 103



N 103 103


Declline in listening match on the radio



N 107 106



N 106 106

Variables Q13- Q12eSpearman's rho General CB perception

Decline in listening match on the radio

Correlations

Variables Q13- Q12dSpearman's rho General CB perception

Decline in watching match Online

Correlations

Decline in watching match on TV at home

Correlations

Variables Q13- Q12cSpearman's rho General CB perception

Decline in watching match on TV in a pub

Decline in going to the Stadium

Correlations

Variables Q13- Q12bGeneral CB perceptionSpearman's rho

Variables Q13- Q12a

Correlations

Spearman's rho General CB perception

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXVI

APPENDIX 11: Mann-Whitney U Test Q13-Q16.

Ranks

Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team? N Mean Rank

Sum of Ranks


Real Madrid or FC Barcelona 35 55.24 1933.50 Other team 72 53.40 3844.50 Total 107

Test Statisticsa

''In general, I consider that La Liga is

rather...'' Mann-Whitney U 1216.500 Wilcoxon W 3844.500 Z -.341 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .733 a. Grouping Variable: Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team?

Appendices

Manuel Pérez Vehí XXVII

Appendix 12: Mann-Whitney U Test Q14-Q16.

Ranks

Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team? N Mean Rank

Sum of Ranks

Same chances to win. ''I want my team to have as many chances as any other team to win La Liga''

Real Madrid or FC Barcelona 35 43.04 1506.50

Other team 70 57.98 4058.50 Total 105

Test Statisticsa

Same chances to win. ''I want my team to have as many chances as any other team

to win La Liga'' Mann-Whitney U

876.500

Wilcoxon W 1506.500

Z -2.860 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .004

a. Grouping Variable: Team. Which is your preferred Spanish football team?

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Manuel Pérez Vehí XXVIII

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spanish football fans' perception of competitive balance in the spanish football first division

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