Two fifths of male football fans admit to destruction of items

The team at www.BiggestFreeBets.com conducted the research as part of an ongoing study into British attitudes and loyalty surrounding sports teams.

2,512 British men aged 18 and over, all of whom stated that they are loyal to one football club and regularly watch their team, were quizzed on the level of dedication they hold towards the game and their club.

Initially all respondents were asked ‘Do you ever go to watch your team play at a stadium, instead of just on TV?’ to which 24% stated that ‘yes’ they do on a regular basis – averaging 9 times per season. A further 17% stated that they watch their team play live once or twice throughout the season, whilst just 6% attend every game they’re able to. The remaining 53% more often than not watch their team on TV.

All respondents were then asked ‘Does your team winning or losing have an effect on your mood?’ to which two thirds of respondents, 63%, admitted that ‘yes’ it does. When asked how they were likely to react if their team were to lose, the top responses were ‘I’ll rant and rave about them and the game’ (46%) and ‘I tend to go quiet and not want to talk about it’ (29%). When asked if they’d ever broken anything in football-related rage, two fifths of respondents (41%) confessed that they had.

Wanting to delve a little deeper, all respondents who stated that they’d broken one item or another in anger due to their team not performing as expected were provided with a list of possible items that they may have broken and told to select all those that they had. Once all of the responses were collated, the most commonly broken items during football season were revealed as follows:

Mugs/glasses - 36%

Smartphones - 26%

Plates/bowls - 22%

TV’s - 14%

Coffee tables - 10%

According to the poll, 4% also confessed that they’d broken a bone (in their foot or in their hand) due to lashing out in anger and/or frustration.

Ethan Rowe, Editor in Chief of BiggestFreeBets.com, commented: “You emotionally invest yourselves into your favourite team; you follow everything they do, you watch all of their games, and it’s never nice to see them defeated – whether they lose to a better team or not. Whilst it’s great to show your feelings, when it leads to items getting damaged – especially expensive items or even bones – it may be time to step back and pick a new team to follow, or work on that rage.”