An Assessment of the Attitudes of Three Big Football Teams' Supporters in Turkey towards Fanaticism

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the attitudes of the spectators of the three big football teams in Turkey towards being a supporter. The study was conducted on a total of 429 individuals who were members of the supporters unions of Besiktas, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe teams, current champions of Turkey's Spor Toto Super League, which have a past of longer than one hundred years, or who were just supporters of these teams. The sample was chosen through the random sampling method. The "Football Supporter Fanaticism Scale" (FSFS) developed by Tasmektepligil et al., was used in the study. The results of the study showed that attitudes about being a supporter showed significant differences in terms of the variables of "gender, marital status, occupation, income, being in a supporter group and stand in the stadium". It can be said that fanatic attitudes differed significantly among male, single individuals who had low incomes, who watched games behind the goal posts and who were in a supporter group. It was found that very few of the individuals who were included in this study were fanatics (4.2%; n = 18), while a great majority were supporters (30.8%; n = 132) and spectators (65.0%; n = 279). Of fanatic supporters, 1.6% (n = 7) were Besiktas supporters, while 0.7% (n = 3) were Galatasaray supporters and 1.9% (n = 8) were Fenerbahçe supporters. As a conclusion, it can be said that there are marginal individuals among the supporters of the three big clubs although in low numbers. Thus, precautions should be taken to prevent these individuals from becoming active in supporters unions and they should be periodically educated about acceptable supporter behaviours.