Analysis on Identification Level of Football Fans with Their Teams in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Region

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the identification level of football fans with their teams in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Region.

Material and method: General screening model, which is one of the descriptive methods, was used in the research. The research contains 944 people being the fans of 7 football teams (Yeni Malatyaspor in the Super League, Büyükşehir Belediye Erzurumspor, Elazığspor, Gaziantepspor, Gazişehir Gaziantepspor in the 1^st League and Amed sportif faaliyetler, Şanlıurfaspor in the 2^nd League) in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Region playing in Super League, 1^st League and 2^nd League during 2017-2018 football season. As the data collection tool of the study, ‘Sports Fan Identification Scale’ developed by Wann and Branscompe (1993) and translated into Turkish by Günay and Tiryaki (2003) with validity and reliability studies performed was used. 0.88 value was found as the Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the Sports Fan Identification Scale. The significance level was adopted as α=0.05.

Findings: It has been determined that there are significant differences between the variables of age, marital status and the teams supported and the mean scores on identification level of fans with their teams (p<0.05) while no significant difference has been ascertained between the variables of education, job and income level and the mean scores on identification level of fans with their teams (p>0.05).

Conclusion: It has been concluded that mean scores of fans on their identification level with their teams playing in high leagues are high and the fans’ level of identification with the teams has decreased as the lower leagues are considered.