December 18 – Following months of data crunching, football boffins have created the first ever fan equation – developing a formula which calculates which team a football fan should support and why.
On-line betting company 888sport.com teamed up with the Football Fans Census and the Association of Football Statisticians to delve into the psyche of footy nuts with the findings dispelling some of the biggest myths regarding fans.
S = .54a + .20c + .18p +.08g
Broken down into its scientific components, s equals the reasons for supporting a team, a is the expressions of importance of “accident of birth” (place of birth), c is the expressions of importance of choice (history of the club or certain players), p is the expressions of importance of persuasion (first team seen live or the influence of friends) and g is the expressions of importance of seeing a particular game (first FA Cup final).
More than 2,000 fans were polled as part of the research for 888sport’s Choose Your Team – a promotion rewarding fans for backing their own team - with the results forming the basis of the mind boggling equation.
Key findings from the research included:
• 41 per cent of fans state that their place of birth was the single most important factor when choosing their team
• 73 per cent of fans live within 20 miles of their team’s ground and only five per cent live 300 miles or more away
• 40 per cent of fans admit to being glory supporters choosing a team based on their success
• 35 per cent of fans choose their team based on the influence of a member of the family
• The first team a fan watches live is “extremely important” in 24 per cent of cases.
• A fans husband/wife/partners affiliation is almost never a factor
• Fans are fickle as 17 per cent have switched allegiances at some point
• The average age for a fan to make their decision is 10 years old
• 10 per cent of female fans choose their team based on whether the teams players are good looking
• The colour of kit worn is generally considered a more significant factor than the price of tickets.
Don Hales, of the Association of Football Statisticians said: “We’ve spent hours inputting the data into spreadsheets to develop a formula which ultimately dispels the myths that ‘glory supporters’ are rife amongst football fans.
“In fact, our research proves that 56 per cent of fans live between 0-10 miles from the ground.”
888sport spokesman, Ed Nicholson, said: “Picking your team is one of the biggest decisions in a football fan’s life but often we can’t explain why we support the team we do.
“We want to make sure fans get it right so we sent our boffins into the lab and the results they’ve come back with are fascinating.
“Choosing your team is a rite of passage for a football fan.
“I support QPR but, coming from Hackney, the equation suggests I should have supported Arsenal.
“If I’d known this earlier, I could have saved myself years of misery on the Loftus Road terraces.”