Book Description

Rivalry is omnipresent in sports given the nature of competition in sports. Sports fans likely can easily and quickly name a few rivalries from a variety of sports at either the professional or collegiate level, such as El Classico between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The long history of sports rivalry, the high exposure and rich stories produced by the sports media, the human and financial resources invested in rivalry games, and the frequent appearance of rivalries in sports fans' discussions, all highlight the importance of sports rivalry. The purpose of this study is to explore distant fans' perceptions of sports rivalry as a phenomenon with three major topics: (1) distant fans' perceptions of sports rivalry, (2) the antecedents contributing to the perceived sports rivalry of distant fans, and (3) distant fans' feelings of Schadenfreude, as well as the differences regarding these three topics toward the top and the secondary rival teams. This study will also include an examination of the role of team identification in association with the primary research topics.The current study utilized online questionnaires to gather data among distant fans of Liverpool FC from the United States, South Korea, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Convenience sampling was used and questionnaires were distributed through the Official Liverpool Supporters Clubs from the listed countries. The information collected was analyzed using R-Studio and SPSS. Frequency analyses were conducted for the demographic questions and major research questions. Additionally, a qualitative analysis of distant fans' socializing agents and influencing factors was provided. The assessment of reliability and the assumptions were checked before testing the hypotheses. The hypotheses examining the differences between the top and secondary rivals, as well as between the high and moderate identification fans, were tested by MANCOVA and ACNOVA. The association between team identification and rivalry perceptions as well as Schadenfreude were tested by simple linear regression and weighted regression. The key findings of the current study were three folds. Firstly, distant fans were likely to identify mass media as the socializing agents introducing them to their favorite sports team, including television, print media, social media, and Esports. Players, specific games, and team spirit were frequently mentioned when distant fans talked about the factors influencing them to become a fan. Secondly, in line with prior research, distant fans would not like to support the rivals when playing against a third party and had strong sense of satisfaction when their favorite team winning a direct game against the rivals. Highly identified distant fans were inclined to have stronger negative perceptions and feelings Schadenfreude against the rivals than fans with lower team identification. Thirdly, inconsistent with previous findings, distant fans did not perceive differently towards the top and secondary rivals nor have different levels of feelings of Schadenfreude. Distant fans perceived greater importance in relative dominance, defining moments, competition for personnel, and unfairness, while considered geography and cultural similarity least important in shaping the perceived rivalries.