More Than Just Hooligans: Exploring Football Fandom Of The Malaysian Football Fans
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Keywords:
Fandom, Fidelity, Fans, Social Identity, Para-Social RelationshipAbstract
This study explores the significance of social identity theory in explaining the routine and habitual
processes of fans' lives in becoming football fans. Football fans’ personal characteristics and experiences relate
to one another and strengthen their identity through identification, association, and affiliation within the group.
Enhancing an understanding of the fans and essential connections between fandom, fidelity, and football is
paramount to further understanding how fandom is practised and leads to understanding how fandom works.
Meanwhile, the Malaysia Super League offers an exciting platform to examine fans' mundane experiences
watching and supporting football. Through focus group analysis, general psychographics of football fans, their
fandom patterns and practice will be identified, and at the same time, explore how fandom and fidelity are
created. The results support that football fans attain vicarious achievements by being identified as loyal fans.
The more identified a football fan is, the more likely they will find ways to demonstrate their fandom and
fidelity publicly, for example, attending live matches at the stadium, wearing the jersey, and purchasing the
branded merchandise of the club.
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