V.A. Dikhor¹
PhD, Associate Professor D.Yu. Narhov¹
PhD, Associate Professor D.V. Shkurin¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.M. Burkova¹
PhD, Associate Professor N.B. Serova^1
1Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg

Keywords: 2018 FIFA World Cup, students’ opinion survey, fan community, host city.

Background. The 2018 FIFA World Cup is ranked a sports event number one in our country for the last four years. Foreign fans reportedly appreciated the sports facilities and excellent organization and management services for the global event and hospitality of the Russian fans and people. The leading sport experts believe that the foreign visitors to the championship were dominated by the so called scarfers i.e. the relatively wealthy fans wearing their club signage and colors and driven mostly by emotions generated by the football event [1].

Objective of the study was to survey students from the host and non-host cities (host city, non-host city) and analyze their opinions on the expected benefits and losses from the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Methods and structure of the study. The “Young people’s attitudes to the 2018 FIFA World Cup” Opinion Survey Project was run in the period of November 1 to December 17, 2017 on by the Russian Society of Sociologists Presidium Decision of October 12, 2017 [2]. The Project was coordinated by the Physical Culture and Sports Research Committee of the Russian Society of Sociologists headed by S.I. Rosenko, Doctor of Sociology, Professor and Dean of the Department of Social Studies and Humanities of Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health (St. Petersburg). The Opinion Survey Project tools and software were developed by D.V. Shkurin, Sociology PhD and Associate Professor.

The Russian Society of Sociologists came up with an online opinion survey form to analyze the people’s attitudes to the 2018 FIFA World Cup that offered 29 questions grouped into socio-demographic (10 questions) and football-specific (8 questions) ones. We sampled for the survey 6498 students from 70 universities (5046 responded every question in the opinion survey form) including students from 9 of 11 host cities. The 59.2% female and 40.8% male sample was dominated (82.3%) by the 18-21 year-olds and rated representative.

Results and discussion. Host cities (Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, St. Petersburg and Saransk) accounted for 69% of the student sample; with the host city students found twice more active in the poll than their non-host city peers. This group activity may be due to the fact that 7 of 9 host cities are populated by millions and ranked among the key national education centers.

Given in Table 1 hereunder are the students’ interests in professional football – that were found generally low: the sport was reportedly of special interest only for two of five respondents. Note that we surveyed interests in the professional rather than amateur football. Furthermore, the survey found some clustering in the host city group, with a smaller share interested in football versus the non-host city group, albeit most of the sample reported interest in the top-ranking football events including national championships, World/ European Championships, UEFA Cups, etc. One more significant difference is the lower host city group interest in the local football matches and tournaments – that may be due to the fact that the large cities offer a much wider variety of cultural events and leisure-time entertainments, and only the top-ranking sports events are perceived as deserving a special interest in these cities.

Table 1. Grouped interests in professional football, %

We actually found the host city group attending football stadiums more often, with 35% of the group reporting visits to stadium one or more times – versus 28% of the non-host city group: see Table 2. It should be mentioned, though, that one of five non-host city students also reported attending a stadium a few times.

Table 2. Football stadium attendance rates, %

The above data were found correlated with the reported affiliations with the football fan communities: see Table 3. The intergroup group difference in this domain was found insignificant, although the host city group seemed less likely to identify themselves as fans and more uncertain on the point. This marginal indifference may be again explained by the more intense lifestyles and a wider variety of the leisure-time activities and entertainment in the large cities. Experts believe [1] that young people normally identify themselves as football fans when they attend matches on a regular basis and keep track of the football events. Therefore, ranked with the football fan community in the host city group was 10-12% versus 8-10% in the non-host city group.

Table 3. Reported affiliations with the football fan community, %

Prior to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the national residents were opposite in their opinions on the event: one group emphasized the importance of the large-scale sporting event for the national image, infrastructure and economy, and the skeptical group believed that the event  was rather stressful in the financial, social and emotional terms for the nation. After the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the VTSIOM analysts were surprised to find most of the young population happy with the unexpectedly pleasant and festive atmosphere of the event. Our survey was run prior to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and that is why the pre-event expectations of students were of special interest in this context: see Tables 4, 5. Note that the host city group was notably concerned and expressed anxiety and even fears prior to the global event, with the host city group welcoming rate tested 8% lower than in the non-host city group.

Table 4. Attitudes to the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, %

¹ Calculation formula: K= (2*PP+P+0*n-N-2*NN)/100

Table 5. Expected benefits and losses from the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, %

Therefore, the survey found virtually no intergroup difference in opinions on the gains and losses from the upcoming event, with almost half of the sample expecting benefits and only one of nine expecting losses for the country from the event.

Conclusion. The opinion survey found the host city students more prepared for the global sports event in sociological terms and less prepared in psychological terms as verified by the expressed concerns, anxiety and even fears of expected negative changes in the habitual lifestyles. The post-event surveys, however, found the event unexpectedly entertaining and pleasant for the residents and very well organized and managed.

References

1. Dikhor V.A., Burkova A.M., Gizullina A.V. Fundamentals of psychology of football fans. Study guide. Yekaterinburg: UU publ., 2017. 76 p.
2. Russian Society of Sociologists [electronic resource]. Available at: http://www.ssa-rss.ru/index.php?page_id=19&id=1430 (Date of access: 01.09.2018).

Corresponding author: dikhviktoriya@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to survey students from the host and non-host cities (host city, non-host city) and analyze their opinions on the expected benefits and losses from the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Methods and structure of the study. The “Young people’s attitudes to the 2018 FIFA World Cup” Opinion Survey Project was run in the period of November 1 to December 17, 2017 on by the Russian Society of Sociologists Presidium Decision of October 12, 2017. The Russian Society of Sociologists came up with an online opinion survey form to analyze the people’s attitudes to the 2018 FIFA World Cup that offered 29 questions grouped into socio-demographic (10 questions) and football-specific (8 questions) ones. The study involved a total of 6,498 students from 70 universities (5046 responded every question in the opinion survey form) including students from 9 of 11 host cities. The 59.2% female and 40.8% male sample was dominated (82.3%) by the 18-21 year-olds and rated representative.

Results of the study and conclusions. The host cities were significantly upgraded in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup in terms of infrastructure, stadium construction, and socio-cultural aspects. According to the survey results, a general feeling of apprehension and anxiety was observed. The respondents from the host cities were found to have higher rates, which was due to their personal interest and involvement in the process. The young people from the host cities were characterized by a greater cluster difference: a smaller percentage was interested in football (compared to the representatives from other cities), but most of them were interested in all top-level football tournaments. The respondents from the host cities demonstrated had little interest in the local games and local-level tournaments. Such results could be stemmed from the fact that the host cities offered a diverse cultural program for leisure activities, so only major football events beat the competition.