An Exploratory Study of Fans’ Motivation in Albanian Football Championship

Football continues to excite and attract more and more people to most countries. This phenomenon that is now bypassing all the borders of the world has been starting up in Albania in the last few years. As one of the most attractive sports which have long roots in Albanian history, football is trying to give important signals, both in terms of the game and for the participation of the fans attending the events in the stadium. Based on the overview of the football championship, we verified that more and more fans particularly female and youngest people are heading to the stadiums to enjoy the football game. With the beginning of the twenty-first century, FIFA and EUFA have changed their program, giving particular importance to increase participation in football activities regardless of gender and age. Even football fans like in other sports are influenced by their motivation which leads them to behave or act in different ways. Precisely, the study aims to examine football fans’ motivation factors of attendance using a nation-wide representative sample (N = 768). Using exploratory factor analysis, a group of motivation factors is analyzed, testing constructs that explain attendance. The study identifies three main factors affecting attendance of Albanian football fans, considered as entertainment, tradition, and group involvement. Entertainment is identified as the most important factor. MANOVA was later used to identify differences in motivation factors between age groups and participation in an organized fan group (support group/ultras).