Why are Russians losing interest in football?
Football in Russia is ceasing to be a mass sport and is causing more and more indifference, at least, this is the conclusion made by experts based on the results of a survey by VTsIOM. Sociologists reported that over two decades the share of regular fans of the game has decreased fivefold. There are now only 4% of Russians, and the number of those who follow football from time to time has almost halved, to 18%. Three quarters of the country's residents are completely indifferent to this sport. In 2005, only 43% of Russians admitted their indifference. Now there are 77% of them and the rate of loss of viewer interest is increasingly higher. Four out of ten respondents found it difficult to assess the situation around football.
At the same time, Match TV commentator Timur Zhuravel notes that the media market does not see such a significant decrease in attention to the game: “VTsIOM has its own survey methods, within the framework of which it is necessary to cover the maximum number of cities across Russia. And, naturally, football is not popular everywhere. If you call settlements beyond the Urals, they most likely won’t tell you anything about him. This is why we have negative numbers.
But we, working within the industry, see how the media space is developing, how bookmakers are investing in it, how attendance at matches is growing, even with Fan ID.
There are also television ratings, according to which there is no noticeable decrease in interest, as reported by sociologists, and these are absolutely working figures. Indeed, in Russia there is not the same passion for football as, for example, in Italy, Spain or England. For example, we have many more “hockey” cities. But if we take some TV ratings and find out that 1.5 million people watched the match, we recalculate this as a share of the Russian population, then for the scale of the country these will turn out to be normal numbers. No failures in sponsorship, marketing interest or any other business interest in football are expected now.”
According to VTsIOM, the number of those who can name the name of a current Russian football player whom they like from the point of view of professional and human qualities has also fallen. 6% of respondents remembered Artem Dzyuba, 3% mentioned the name of Igor Akinfeev, and 2% each mentioned Andrei Arshavin and Alexander Golovin. Managing partner and expert of the website “SportManagement.ru” Irina Kolesnikova believes that the drop in interest affects, first of all, the occupancy of stadiums and leads to a reduction in revenue from ticket sales:
“The decline is obvious, it is associated with general trends. The situation in the world of sports is moving into the field of broadcasting, moving a little away from the offline.
Coverage of such events has been declining over the past five years. All our activity is now moving online: Telegram, broadcasts, video platforms. Attending a match remains a very cool moment, but the number of spectators is still decreasing and decreasing. Streaming does not provide a sense of involvement, but it allows you to follow sports with much greater comfort, while spending less time.
There are also political events. Over the past five or six years, interest has been declining, partly because the Russian Federation is experiencing very strong restrictions from the international sports movement. In particular, the Olympic Games in Paris passed without much attention from the Russian audience. This is a long-term trend that is gaining momentum. In addition, a generation has grown up that is less and less involved in any offline activities, preferring online. Football is not the first place in it.”
Fans who follow the Russian Premier League are much more likely to assess the situation in domestic football critically. 42% of regular viewers talk about problems and deterioration. The organizer of international competitions and the head of the “Games of the Future” project, Igor Stolyarov, notes that so far indifference to this sport does not directly affect the earnings of tournament organizers: “The product does not change much. Due to the fact that the regulation “two halves of 45 minutes” has remained unchanged for centuries, the young audience, which is accustomed to consuming content of a completely different timing, falls off precisely because it takes too long.
Regarding the infrastructure in football, it is now redundant. The question now is how to exploit it more effectively. At the same time, simple algorithmic programs that make it possible to do this more correctly are not used. In our country, the legacy of the 2018 World Cup, even for mass sports, is operated at 15% of its capacity, the rest is simply idle, in particular, a huge number of sports and recreation centers. They are beautifully renovated, with a huge amount of money stuffed into them. At the same time, fans, as a rule, are those who play this sport. If you have fewer people involved, then there are fewer viewers, and, as a result, less money. There are media rights, merchandise, tickets and sponsorship - these are the four pillars on which all sports marketing and, in general, the entire sports market rests. They are strongly interconnected. This is mainly fueled by those who don’t just watch, but by those who also know, play, go to the stadium and kick the ball.”
Despite skepticism about the game, many respondents admit that interest in football will return. Thus, since 2014, the number of those who are confident that the country has conditions for the development of children’s football and the training of young athletes has increased by 10%.
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