Designing for sports fans

The psychology of football team supporters and social identity

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Designing Services

7 min readApr 11, 2020

The following is the summary of research into football (soccer) fandom in the UK and Europe, however the principles can also be applied to football in the US or any other fan-supported team sport.

Designing experiences for sports fans is particularly challenging.

There is a complex psychological relationship between individual and team, and community and team which has to be considered.

It is very easy for designers and brands to get it wrong.

a football supporter at an outdoor football match

The emotional benefits of being a sports fan

Being a fan of a sports team provides a range of emotional and social benefits to the individual.

A sense of belonging, group affiliation and social inclusion
A sense of ritual
Escape from “normal life”
Catharsis and permitted emotional release — especially for men
Tribal connections through a shared uniform and language
Vicarious achievement
Relatively low-risk drama, where losing is relatively low-threat to the individual

It also provides emotional and social benefits to society as a whole.

two men talking at the entrance to a football match

Fandom as community

Being part of a fanbase means joining a community on the basis of individual identification and unity in the face of a perceived external threat — i.e. that of other sports teams and fan groups.

It can also be:

A social leveller — allowing ease of communication between people of different socio-economic groups who find themselves united by their fandom of the same club or team
An acceptable source of gossip — which is believed to promote mental well-being
Socially bonding — individuals within the group can connect through mutual celebration or commiseration

Mutual coping mechanisms

With fans individual and social identities so intrinsically linked to their teams’ success or failures, fans have developed coping mechanisms to deal with success or failure of their team which are recognised patterns and means of communication within the individual fan groups and across all sports.

The two most well known in team sports are BIRGing & CORFing.

BIRG (Basking In Reflected Glory)

A win is attributed to internal factors such as the skill of the team, training facilities or methods or the role and influence of the manager.

When your team wins, you win. The fan sees themselves as part of the team and therefore shares success.

CORF (Cutting Off Reflected Failure)

A loss is attributed to external factors such as failure of the referee, behaviour or performance of the other team, or something more random such as the weather on the day of the match.

When your team loses, they lose. The fan distances their own identity from that of the failing team.

father and son dressed in the same team kit

Fandom as family time

There is a wealth of research exploring the relationship between sports team affiliation and family bonding. With a high percentage of live sports attendance being with family or friends.

In particular, shared sports team allegiance from an early age has been seen to be the basis of father-son bonds long after the child has left home.

Fandom as group identity

As well as at an individual or family level, fans also align themselves with their team as part of a group-identified fanbase.

For some people, this group identity, can become more important than the individual’s own identity, particularly when the social situation triggers the appropriate mental model (e.g. on match day, or when surrounded by other football fans).

Fandom as competition

A sports team’s fan base is all about group cohesion. In order for group cohesion to be maintained, there must be a perceived threat from external sources. Those who support my team are in; those who support another team are out. The rules of in/out group psychology now apply.

This is also known as Social Identity Theory.

In-group fans will perceive other in-group fans as inferior and less intelligent, thereby decreasing validity of the threat.

This can be seen in the examples of local team rivalries. In the UK, a classic example of this is Manchester United vs Manchester City — two rival football teams in the same large city.

a graphic showing in group and out group interaction

Fandom as War

When in group/out group emotions become too virulent, this can lead to conflict, as seen with football (soccer in the UK) in particular, which has frequently been connected with violence.

In this scenario, some fans (usually termed ‘hooligans’) cannot accept their role as vicarious spectator of the drama of football, and want to become perpetrators instead. They use ritual, male expectations, gang mentality and dominance to defend their “tribe” against “invaders” through violence.

Fandom as commitment

Hooliganism notwithstanding, those who identify most strongly with, and are most committed to a club or sports team, will work harder to maintain fan group cohesion.

These fans are called “high-identifiers” and their key characteristics is that they tend to:

Remain loyal to club, win or lose
Motivate others to remain in-group
Emphasise contempt or anger towards out-group
Maintain and promote group distinctiveness (e.g. team history, nostalgia)
Increase self-stereotyping (i.e. group members)

And the majority of this behaviour appears in environments that are already in-group, therefore this is seen extensively in online forums, blogs, chat, social media etc.

Implications for experience design

When designing experiences for sports fans, especially if our clients are sponsors or non-team brands, we need to be aware that we are walking into an existing and complex emotional landscape, shouting our heads off. This might not go down well.

We absolutely need to understand who we are designing for — whether it is high-identified fans or low identified, less committed fans. Providing extensive functionality and content for low-identified fans would be a waste of time and resources, however providing a superficial experience to high-identified fans could have serious repercussions.

High-identified fans can drive positive feedback on experiences and brands however it’s not enough to just slap a team logo on your website or app and expect loyalty and allegiance. Funnily enough, advertising alone cannot drive engagement. It all comes down to trust and being identified as part of the “in group”.

Therefore brands wanting to design engaging experiences with all fans, and particularly high-identified fans need to:

Exhibit integrity and alignment to perceived team values
Recognise the role and value of the fan base
Allow individual fans to demonstrate expertise and individual knowledge
Remain current, relevant and knowledgeable
Reinforce group cohesion
Provide or support social interaction between fans
Protect fans from out-group incursion
Be involved in or demonstrate support for all levels of the team-fan relationship including at local and physical levels.

Also, consider the implication of sudden changes to existing experiences, as loyal fans can react badly to wholesale redesigns which. undermine their sense of mastery.

As always, primary research upfront, and yes — before you start designing solutions, will provide the guidance and direction needed to de-risk any experiences you create for these audiences.