40% of UK football fans against Premiership games being played overseas but Italians, Americans, Australians and Chinese favour the move.
February 20, 2008
London 20th February 2008: A new multi-country survey by Lightspeed Research, a global online market research company, has shown that over a third (39%) of UK based football fans are against the English Football Association hosting Premiership league games overseas. Despite widespread rejection of the plans announced by the Premier League earlier this month by football bodies including FIFA, latest reports this week suggest that Chief Executive Richard Scudamore is still very much behind the proposals.
The survey, carried out on the company’s consumer panels just after the FA had announced its plans reveals that 45% of UK football supporters would watch the game live on TV or the Internet (10%), 15% said they would record the game to watch on TV or on the Internet (4%). 11% said
they would listen to the game on the radio. Respondents were able to choose several different media to enjoy the game, so they could have chosen to watch it live on TV, listen to it on the radio, and to watch a recorded version later, either on TV or on the Internet.
Source: Lightspeed Research UK Online Panel responses February 8-11th 2008
In contrast research on the Lightspeed Research panels in North America, Italy, Japan, and China confirm that the FA’s objective of increasing interest in the UK Premiership could well be achieved with this move. 21% of Italians taking the survey told us they didn’t currently follow the
Premier League and this would make them more likely to; the figure was 13% in North America.
In the Asia Pacific region the potential impact was just as pronounced, with 19% of Chinese who do not currently follow the Premier League saying the move would make them more likely to in Playing the Premier League Away from Home 2 Copyright 2008 Lightspeed Research. Proprietary Information. All Rights Reserved. the future. In Japan the figure was slightly less at 9% and Australia 15%. The move could also have a positive impact on people who already follow the Premier League, with 34% in China and 16% in Japan saying they would follow the competition even more.
David Day, CEO Europe of Lightspeed Research said, “Our research indicates that were the Football Association to go ahead with this move, they have the potential to achieve their goal of tapping into a lucrative overseas fan base. There seems to be high levels of support for this idea amongst football fans around the world, but it will be interesting to see if the plan becomes reality. However, with 39% of our UK respondents saying they are opposed to the plan, the FA needs to be careful not to score an own goal by alienating the Premier League’s large and loyal UK fan
base.”
Ends
Note to editors
Note: This poll reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to
participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in
general, nor the public as a whole.
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Ralph Risk, Marketing Manager – Europe
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Lucy Green
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About Lightspeed Research
Lightspeed Research is global interactive data solutions provider delivering market research results through global panels. Lightspeed Research provides access to household members across 34 countries in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. Lightspeed Research’s proprietary panels are recruited and maintained to ensure quality and representative sampling to support studies that range in scope and complexity across most industry sectors. Lightspeed Research operates panels covering healthcare, financial services, automotive, B2B, telecommunications, family and more. Lightspeed Research is a member of WPP (LSE: WPP) (NASDAQ: WPPGY), one of the world’s leading communications services
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