Qatar’s Loudest Fans Aren’t from Qatar or Middle East
A new Pew Research study reveals there’s nothing about being a fan of, say, Manchester United that guarantees you’ll be from a certain place in the world; in fact, there are surprisingly few fans of England or Wales who are fans of soccer from that region. What happens, then, when people from other countries are fans of soccer?
The study is certainly interesting — and not particularly surprising. After all, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, are the countries with the highest number of United fans. Meanwhile, the United States, Mexico, and the Philippines have the highest number of FAS (Fútbol Asiático Sub-Atlántico, “subcontinental”) fans (i.e., fans of the United States), and the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan had the highest number of Asian supporters (i.e., fans of other Asian countries).
Yet, when we take a closer look at certain groups, or sub-populations, they don’t seem to make particularly good fans. There are fewer fans of Asians who support English soccer than there are fans of Asian soccer in general. Similarly, there were more fans of Mexicans who support Mexican soccer than there were fans of Mexican soccer fans in general.
In fact, one of the most intriguing results was that there were many more fans of Mexicans who were either fans of Mexico or Latin America (i.e., fans of Mexico or Latin America) than there were fans of any particular group of fans in general. In other words, when you’re a fan of Mexican soccer, there’s a greater chance you’ll be a fan of Mexico than there’s of the United States, Canada, or any other group of fans.
Yet the study goes further by exploring the demographics of soccer supporters. The fact that many more fans of Mexicans who are fans of Latin America support Mexican soccer than fans of Mexicans who are fans of Mexican soccer might surprise some people. After all, you might have thought that fans of Mexican soccer would be more likely to be Mexican.
But the truth is that the study doesn’t actually find an increase in the number of fans of Mexicans who are fans of Latin America. Instead, the number of fans of Mexicans who support Latin America increases when you control for fans
