Women football spectatorship in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Football is a phenomenon of the last decades and also due to fans it could become the most popular sport in the world throughout its history. Football is bringing happiness, fulfilment and thrill to billion people all over the world. But on the other hand it is also riven with corruption, racism, homophobia and violence. The goal of this paper is to analyze the relationship between fans’ verbal and other expression and their violent behavior at Eden football stadium in the Czech Republic. A pilot study was performed in 2015 year, with data collected from women fans (n = 77) aged 22.9 ± 6.4 years old. All of the respondents were attending in a stand of home team supporters. This paper uses quantitative research, methods of analysis, mathematical and statistical methods. In our pilot study, we found that physical aggression against rival fans in the stadium is considered the most serious expression of violent behavior by 73 % of the respondents. Furthermore, 62 % of the respondents found the most serious activity firing of pyrotechnics. Physical aggression against police and riot police marked 57 % of the respondents for the most serious expression. 55 % of the respondents signified the most serious activity demolishing stadium. Triggers for their behavior are mostly alcohol or other addictive substance or referee´s mistake. Only 35 % of the respondents did not meet with the destruction of the stadium and other riots. Also, based on the results of the pilot study, we find that classic fans under 23 years of age are more tolerant of negative social phenomena in the surroundings of the stadium.