Copa90

How fans are changing football

A new report from Copa90 shows that the changing habits of modern football fans will impact everything from how the game is broadcast to how brands can reach audiences. James Kirkham, Head of Copa90, gives CR the low down

How are you going to watch this year’s World Cup? Maybe a crowd of you will head down to the pub, to stand around chatting with your mates while keeping one eye fixed on the TV in the corner. Or perhaps you’ll be watching it at home with your family, inducting the younger members into the joys of being part of an international sporting event.

This is the traditional way that we’ve all watched football, and is still the go-to image that most of us have of how it is consumed: via a TV. Yet this year, you may well get some of your World Cup coverage via Twitter, with a mix of deals in various countries made with the platform to stream live content and highlights.

Even in 2018, this is a quirky enough eventuality to have received news headlines and raised eyebrows, though the chances are that this is likely to be how all football broadcasting is going to go in the future: it will be online and easily accessible, and no longer needing a telly.

None of this will come as much of a surprise to those at Copa90, the football content site that describes itself as “the home of global football fan culture”, which has recently published a report into the viewing (and spending) habits of the modern football fan.