Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Super Interesting Article on Hooliganism and its Effects on Club Performance

Stefan Szymanski is one of the co-authors of Soccernomics - a brilliant book if you've not read it - and he has an article up on soccernomics-agency.com on the effects of hooliganism on club performance.

I'll spare you a recounting of the methodology and findings as you can read the article here, but Szymanski summarizes the study's findings thusly:

Our results show that in the earlier period hooliganism did have the predicted effects, but in the more recent periods these effects seem to have disappeared. We think this makes sense. From the perspective of crowd control, the clubs and police have intervened more systematically to snuff out incidents as they start, and the advent of all seater stadiums and new investments, including CCTV, have made the job easier. On the demand side, rising ticket prices have priced out a lot of young men who were predominantly (but not exclusively) associated with the unrest. An aging fan profile, and the desire the bring young children to games, has changed the nature of fandom to some extent. As the phenomenon has has diminished, so has its potential to impact club performance.

Of note is Szymanski's suggestion that hooliganism, as suggested in my previous post, is less an independent force acting on society and sporting events in particular, and more a reflection of the societal norms that accompany sports culture. As those attending sporting events have changed demographically and global coverage and sponsorship rights have become more lucrative, hooliganism and those participating in it have largely left the stadia and been consigned to the fringes of sports culture. 

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