interest in Russian football is declining
The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) on Monday, based on data obtained from a survey of respondents, reported that the share of citizens who are indifferent to Russian football has almost doubled over the past almost two decades, rising from 43% to 77%. For the country's most popular game, this is technically an alarming sign. However, as statistics from past years and other organizations show, nothing terrible happened.
On Monday, VTsIOM published data from a survey regarding the popularity of Russian football among the population. They turned out depressing. “In Russia, mass interest in football is rather experiencing a crisis. This is evidenced by the reduction in the share of regular fans by five times over almost two decades (2005 - 19%, 2024 - 4%), the share of periodic fans - by half (2005 - 34%, 2024 - 18%), as well as an increase in the share of those indifferent to this sport to 77% (2005 - 43%, 2009 - 45%, 2022 - 63%),” says the publications on the official website of VTsIOM.
The organization’s statement notes that back in 2009, almost every second respondent could name an active Russian football player who was interesting to him. According to a new survey, the circle of players people know has narrowed. Only 17% of respondents could name a player that was interesting to the respondent. Most popular turned out to be:
- Artem Dzyuba (selected by 6% of respondents),
- Igor Akinfeev (3%),
- Andrey Arshavin (2%),
- Alexander Golovin (2%).
These are players who have proven themselves in one way or another in games for the national team. Apart from Andrei Arshavin, whose career peak came at the 2008 European Championship, everyone else showed themselves worthy at the 2018 World Championships, held in Russia.
“The crisis of spectator interest in Russian football did not begin yesterday, but its deepening was greatly facilitated by the excommunication of our clubs and the Russian national team from major international competitions. The vector of audience attention in this situation is moving to other sectors of the leisure and entertainment market,” commented the General Director of the VTsIOM Foundation, Konstantin Abramov, on the survey results.
Despite the alarmism present in the VTsIOM report, it should be noted that Russia, in principle, has never taken leading positions in the ratings of countries whose residents are constantly interested in football. Yes, there was a rise in 2018, before the World Cup and after it, when most of the country's population was involved in football history, simply knowing that the world championship would be held in Russia. But the effect of its implementation quickly faded away.
A couple of months after the end of the World Cup, a study by the portal statista.com showed that Russia was at the bottom of the top 15 in the list of countries interested in football. Then only 9% of Russians surveyed could call themselves devoted fans. Another 20% noted that they are interested in football in general, but do not follow specific games. Finally, 35% and 36% said they either follow football very rarely or not at all.
In other words, the category of those who are almost not interested in football or not interested in it at all in the year of the 2018 World Cup exceeded 70%. Against this background, the increase in the share of “indifferent to this sport to 77%” no longer looks like a disaster.
It's interesting that even in UK - the country with the strongest league in the world (English Premier League, EPL) - the share of citizens who are not interested or rarely interested in football reaches 56%. Moreover, the share of those who do not follow the game at all, according to calculations by statista.com, is not much different from the Russian one - 31% versus 36%. It should also be noted that in first place in terms of involvement in football “support” is Germany. There, 49% of the population regularly or occasionally supports football clubs. However, the German example pales in comparison with the situation in Saudi Arabia. According to Nielsen research, this Middle Eastern country is the leader in terms of public interest in football - 80%. In second place Thailand — 78%, in the third to fifth: Chile, Portugal, Türkiye - 75%. Only one country representing the Big Five (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France) made it into the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings: Italy ranks 9th with an indicator of 67%.
Russian football officials also disagreed with the conclusions of VTsIOM. "RFS (Russian Football Union.— “Kommersant”) annually conducts research regarding the popularity of football in Russia and the involvement of Russians in playing football and its varieties. Thus, according to a report by the research company Mediascope, in 2023, 76% of our country’s residents were interested in football, which is 4% higher than in 2022. The audience’s interest in football is also confirmed by the ratings of broadcasts of matches of the national team, the Russian Premier League and the Russian Cup,” said the RFU communications service.
However, we cannot ignore the facts indicating that interest in football is still declining. But not among, let’s say, an unskilled public, but precisely among those who know and love the game.
Just look at the dynamics of attendance at Russian Premier League (RPL) matches in recent years. In the season that ended in 2019, the last pre-Covid season, the games of the Russian championship, according to RPL data, were attended on average by a record 16.8 thousand spectators. Then restrictions related to the pandemic reduced the figures sharply. But even more noticeably - to 7.4 thousand people on average per match - they dropped in 2022 after the introduction of Fan ID. Gradually, attendance has increased, but it is still very far from reaching the level of the end of the last decade. In the current championship it does not even reach 12 thousand spectators.
A special factor that influenced the decline in interest in football was the exclusion of Russian teams from international tournaments, which occurred after the events began in Ukraine. “It’s quite understandable that a large number of people watched international matches - the Champions League, Europa League, national team games. There are no such matches after 2022, it is clear that interest has dropped. From my point of view, this is objective,” said TASS Honorary President of the RFU Vyacheslav Koloskov.
But, according to him, “it’s strange that they surveyed only football fans, and not all team sports.” Otherwise, Mr. Koloskov believes, “it would be clear: this is some kind of tendency for all sports or concerns only football.”
Note that in the Continental Hockey League (KHL), whose clubs are not at all connected with European tournaments, a record average attendance was recorded in the 2023/24 season - 6,622 people. And in the VTB United Basketball League, the average attendance at games last season exceeded 3 thousand people, which is almost twice as much as before the exclusion of Russian basketball from the international schedule.
