University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg

Faculty of Business and Social Sciences

Handed in 25th April 2014

Master thesis

Maximising match-day revenue in football through

implementation of Fan Relationship Management

Author of the thesis: Supervisor:

Clément Richet Arne Feddersen Eksamens nr: 311618 Associate Professor, Dr. rer. pol. Cand. Merc. Sports & Eventmanagement Department of Business Economics clementrichet@yahoo.fr af@sam.sdu.dk

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Sworn statement

I hereby solemnly declare that I have personally and independently prepared this paper. All quotations in the text have been marked as such, and the paper or considerable parts of it have not previously been subject to any examination or assessment.

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Abstract

Title: Maximising match-day revenue in football through implementation of Fan Relationship Management

Course: Master thesis in Business Administration

Author: Clément Richet

Keywords: Fan Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, Fan Engagement, Fan Experience, Fan Lifetime Value Aim of the thesis: To understand how French football clubs can maximise their match-day revenue (both ticketing and merchandising) thanks to a better implementation of Fan Relationship Management.

Methodology: The thesis is a case study with an exploratory approach based on a qualitative research method. The research method used is the qualitative one because based on interviews and documents collection. The design used for this case study is a multiple-cases design. Conclusions: The maximisation of match-day revenue for French clubs will passes by a better understanding of fans behaviour, more efficient and sophisticated CRM systems, more adapted venues for the match-day experience and above all, a profound desire inside the clubs to put the supporter in the centre of the global strategy.

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Table of Contents

Sworn statement ..................................................................................................................................................... 2

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

2. Methodology ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

2.1 Scientific approach........................................................................................................................................ 9

2.2 Research strategy ....................................................................................................................................... 10

2.3 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................................ 11

2.4 Quality of Research ..................................................................................................................................... 14

3. Theoretical framework ...................................................................................................................................... 16

3.1 Football Club economics in Europe ............................................................................................................ 16

3.1.1 Financial models: from SSSL to MMMMG ........................................................................................... 16

3.1.2: Revenue streams evolution: comparison between Ligue 1 and Bundesliga ...................................... 18

3.1.3 Match-day revenue: Bundesliga the model to follow ? ...................................................................... 21

3.2 From Customer Relationship Management to Fan Relationship Management ......................................... 24

3.2.2 CRM in football .................................................................................................................................... 27

4. Empirical study .................................................................................................................................................. 34

4.1 Improving the Fan Experience .................................................................................................................... 34

4.1.1 Addressing new customer needs ........................................................................................................ 34

4.1.2 Stadium 2.0 to serve Fan Engagement ................................................................................................ 35

4.1.3 Increasing the Match-day revenue ...................................................................................................... 39

4.2 Interviews ................................................................................................................................................... 41

4.2.1 Presentation of the respondents......................................................................................................... 41

4.2.2 LFP ....................................................................................................................................................... 42

4.2.3 Interviews with stadium managers ..................................................................................................... 44

5. Analysis.............................................................................................................................................................. 58

5.1 Revenue share overview ............................................................................................................................. 58

5.2 Attendance rate and determinants ............................................................................................................ 59

5.3 CRM systems and supporter’s knowledge .................................................................................................. 61

5.4 Pre and post-match attendance ................................................................................................................. 62

5.5 Stadium connectivity .................................................................................................................................. 63

5.6 Smartphone applications ............................................................................................................................ 65

5.7 Pass ASNL .................................................................................................................................................... 66

6. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................................... 68

Reference List ........................................................................................................................................................ 73

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................... 78

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1. Introduction

Football has been subject to profound mutations in the last decades regarding its

commercialization, professionalization and internationalization (Lund, 2011). The changes

first appeared during the 1960s when non-profit clubs transformed themselves into limited

companies with the goal for the owners to gain financial profits. Then, the privatization of TV

channels leading to the introduction of advertising-funded television modified dramatically

the business model of the clubs and the origin of their revenue stream. Each European

league followed the process of professionalization by creating authorities in charge of

organizing and monitoring the national competitions but also distributing the revenue from

the commercialization of the television broadcasts. In France, this entity is called “Ligue

Professionelle de Football” (LFP). Under the authority of the French Football Federation, this

governing body runs the two major professional football leagues: Ligue 1 and Ligue2. His

missions are to organize, manage and regulate all the aspects of professional football but

also to finance actions in order to develop the resources of professional football in France.

The authority is partly organized in commissions (which deal with majors topics of concern

such as the economic development of the league, the disciplinary commission…) and

organizations such as the DNCG (Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion) which has no

equivalent in other top European leagues. It is responsible for monitoring and overseeing the

accounts of professional football clubs in France. At the end of each season, the DNCG is

reviewing the financial results of each club and decides whether or not the club can continue

in the league the next season. Clubs that are found in breach of rules can be banned from

transferring players during a certain amount of time or relegated to a lower league. This

relative severity has for objective to ensure the financial health of the professional French

clubs. But at the end of the 2011/2012 season, the global deficit of the French professional

football clubs equalled 107 million euros (DNCG, 2012). If compared to the global situation in

Europe where 55% of clubs have faced losses in 2011 (Deloitte, 2013) the situation does not

seem to be much different between the French clubs and the European ones. A deeper

analysis of the figures shows that the European football market grew to €19.4 billion the

same season. That represents a general increase of 11% in terms of total revenue between

2011 and 2012. In France, this augmentation has reached €1.1billion€ (+9%) which placed

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the country at the second spot in terms of progression behind England with €2.9 billion

(+16%). When analysing the spending of the top 5 leagues in Europe during the same period,

the major rise concerns waging costs (+16% in England, +8% in France, +3% in Germany and

Spain, +2% in Italy). The wages/revenue ratios, extremely high (75% for Italy, 74% for France

and 70% for England) are progressing (+16% for England, +8% for France). So, despite the

fact that clubs increase their revenue each season, the positive variation of the wages cost

exceeds this potential gain for the clubs. The future can go into two directions. Either the

European clubs globally reduce the wages of their team and bring down the transfers fees or

they will have to find new ways to raise their revenue to overcome the wages and transfers

inflation. In the last years, the organization in charge of monitoring European football (UEFA)

has started to take actions in order to regulate the football market. With the progressive

implementation of Financial Fair Play (FFP) since 2010, UEFA’s goal is to prevent football

clubs from spending more than they earn and so to avoid them getting into financial

problems which could threaten their long term survival. The FFP has been supported by the

presidential board of UEFA and especially Michel Platini who used the example of the French

DNCG to create the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. The punishments that can be taken

against clubs transgressing the rules are going from reprimand / warning, fines, points

deduction to a disqualification from a European competition in progress and ultimately an

exclusion from future European competitions (UEFA, 2012). Those sanctions are very similar

to the ones French clubs can be facing with the DNCG.

With the inflation of salaries, the average salary in Ligue 1 was about 15 245€ in 1998 and

46 000€ in 2012 (Cash Investigation, 2013), and the ultra-dependence to the TV rights in

terms of revenue stream, in average about 61% of total revenue for each club in 2011/2012

(Appendix 1), the business model of French professional clubs has also to be reviewed, both

in terms of expenditures (players transfers and wages) and revenue (TV broadcasting rights

revenue, sponsorship contracts, match-day revenue). The DNCG, becoming more and more

severe with the clubs in the recent years forced clubs to keep a close eye on their expenses

and define new economic objectives: first, stop the inflation of the waging costs, second,

reduce the club’s dependence to the TV broadcasting revenue and third, increase their other

revenue which are under exploited if compared to the other major European leagues. For

the season 2011-2012, ticketing revenue represented 12% of total revenue in Ligue 1 (19% in

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average in Europe) (Leparisien, 2013). During the last 5 seasons, the stadium filling rate has

plumped from 75,9% in 2008-2009 to 70,6% in 2012-2013 (LFP, 2013) which had for effect to

bring down the ticketing revenue. Ligue 1 has fallen to the last spot in terms of attendance in

the 5 big European leagues with 19240 spectators in average for the season 2012-2013 (LFP,

2013). Undoubtedly, the economic crisis has hit hard on the supporters wallets since 2008.

But could the clubs have taken actions to reverse this tendency? How is the relation

between the supporters and their club in 2014? Do clubs know who are frequenting their

stadium? Are the venues adapted to the needs and wants of modern fans? Those are the

questions French football clubs have to face now. Most of them start to realize that

supporter’s behaviours have changed. And that those changes have had a negative impact

on their match-day revenue. The time is over when fans were driving 50 kilometres to watch

a football game, staying seated under the rain in the cold and queuing 15 minutes for a

burger or a drink. People are not willing to wait anymore. And that is because they pay a

ticket. The value of this ticket worth for them more than just the right to attend a football

match. They expect at least basic services, security and no waiting time. They expect to be

rewarded when coming to the league cups games and being able to use e-ticketing on their

phone to get into the stadium. Some (and the number is growing) want to be able to use

their phone to communicate and interact with others fans at home or in the stadium. And

more importantly, supporters want to feel valued by their club as much as they valued it. To

reverse the curve of attendance in Ligue 1 and increase the match-day revenue (ticketing

and merchandising), clubs will have to work on those two aspects: the match-day experience

and the relationship with the fans.

Introducing the concepts of Fan Relationship Management (derived from Customer

Relationship Management), Fan Engagement, Fan Experience and Fan Lifetime Value, I will

study the adaptation of the French football clubs to this strategy undertaken by the biggest

European football clubs but also most of the sporting clubs in the United States: providing a

full experience at the stadium and getting a perfect knowledge of your supporters in order

to maximise the match-day revenue and the attendance.

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The main research question will be: How French clubs can increase their match-day revenue

thought implementation of Fan Relationship Management? Two sub research questions will

be added: What are the critical success factors for a successful FRM implementation in

professional French football? What type of in stadia investments have to be decided to

successfully undertake this strategy?

The purpose of this research is to analyse how French football clubs are adapting themselves

to the behavioural changes of the supporters at the stadium and how they can maximise

their match-day revenue independently of the sporting results. The research will hopefully

contribute with important insights and recommendations for how French football clubs can

achieve this.

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2. Methodology

2.1 Scientific approach

The scientific approach to this thesis is the following: I intent to write a case study. It has

been defined as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within

its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are

not clearly evident (Yin, 2003). According to Scholz & Tietje (2002), a case study can be

divided into three different categories; exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. When

using the descriptive approach the case use reference theory to describe a situation from a

certain perspective. The explanatory approach is chosen to test different types of cause-and-

effect relationships (Scholz & Tietje, 2002). I chose the exploratory approach which is used to

get new insights into a phenomenon in order to formulate a more precise problem or

develop hypothesis. In this thesis, it will help us to define the different concepts (Fan

Experience, Fan Engagement), to analyse if their implementation by French football clubs

can lead to increase match-day revenue and ultimately to create recommendations of how

to handle certain issues. The research methods used for a case study can be either

quantitative or qualitative. The quantitative research can be defined by the use of different

data collection techniques that can be expressed in numerical form to analyse the

relationship between two independent variables. The results of the qualitative research are

descriptive rather than predictive. The qualitative method which has been chosen for this

paper is based on observations and interviews when collecting data. We usually use it to get

a better understanding of a phenomenon (Merriam, 2009). This technique is a tool to

describe, decode or translate certain phenomenon. Samples in qualitative research are

usually purposive: participants are selected because they are likely to generate useful data

for analysing the phenomenon (Michael Quinn Patton, 2002). This is the case for this work.

Many interviews have been performed for this thesis: firstly with two specialists of the

different concepts (Fan Relationship management, Fan Engagement, Fan Experience), and

also with 5 stadium managers of French football clubs (Toulouse FC, Stade de Reims,

Olympique Lyonnais, Stade Rennais, AS Nancy Lorraine). The type of sampling used here is a

maximum variation sampling: in order to document diverse variations and identify common

patters, clubs have been selected because of their differences in terms of revenue and

sporting ambitions. The data will be analysed by using the theoretical framework as a

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reference base with the purpose of answering the research questions. Whilst case study

presents many advantages to a research study, it is not without criticism. One disadvantage

of the qualitative research method applying for this thesis is the risk to take facts out of

context and simplify the interpretation to draw conclusions (Denscombe, 2000). Other

identified lack of rigor, being bias, difficulty to generalise as some of the common criticisms

of case study research (Yin, 2003).

2.2 Research strategy

Research strategy provides overall direction of the research including the process by which

the research is conducted (Remenyi et al., 1998). There are five main types of research

strategies (Yin, 2003) which contain their own advantages and disadvantages: case studies,

archival analysis, surveys, experiments and histories. Three conditions have to be satisfied in

order to choose the right research strategy: the type of the research questions posed, the

extent of control the researcher has over behavioural events and the degree of focus on

contemporary issues. According to that, the choice of using cases studies has to be made

when the research questions contain “why” or “how”. In this thesis, the main research

question being “How French clubs can increase their match-day revenue thought

implementation of Fan Relationship Management?” it favours a case study research. Yin

identified as a second condition, the degree of control the researcher has over actual

behavioural events. In this thesis the researcher has not control over the implementation of

new marketing strategies into football clubs. Thirdly, the issues investigated in the research

are contemporary, the concepts studied being new to most of the French football clubs and

started to be implemented in other countries in the last months only. Also the case study

consists of two sources of contemporary evidence with direct observations and interviews of

the persons involved in the topic. The possibility to use many different types of evidences

(documents, interviews, observations) is also a great strength of case studies (Yin, 2003). In

order to get a complete background on the different concepts addressed in this paper,

secondary documents such as previous thesis written on the subject, websites articles and

books have been used.

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There are four basic designs for cases studies that can be separated into two categories:

single cases and multiple cases (Yin, 2003). A single case is chosen when a researcher wants

to criticize a significant theory, capture the conditions of a commonplace situation with the

use of one example. In this paper, multiple case study research design (MCSRD) has been

used with five different football clubs which are Stade Rennais FC, Olympique Lyonnais, AS

Nancy Lorraine, Toulouse FC and Stade de Reims. The clubs have different structure and

prerequisite. MCSRD results in choosing carefully the respondents so it either predicts the

same results or predicts contrasting results for expected reasons (Yin, 2003). Moreover, the

analysis of the multiple case study can be holistic or embedded. The research is based on an

embedded design because various units within the 5 cases have been studied. Furthermore

several aspects within each case influenced the result of the study.

2.3 Data Collection

There are six types of data collection in case studies which are document, archival records,

interviews, direct observation, participant observation and artifacts (Yin, 2009) The first

source used in this thesis has been the interviews which is the most used type of data

collection in qualitative research (Merriam, 2009). Because it focuses directly on the

research problem, Yin (2009) states that interviews are the most important source of

information. It can take different forms and the most common is of an open-ended nature

with face to face meeting. During this encounter the researcher obtains important

information from another person (Merriam, 2009). In order to obtain concrete answers

about the marketing strategies of the clubs, interviews needed to be conduct with top

managers and moreover with the person responsible of the stadium management. One

interview has been performed in person to person meeting in Reims. Three other interviews

have been realized by phone. And the last one has been made thanks to emails

correspondence. Interviews can be structured in three different ways: highly structured,

semi-structured and unstructured (Merriam, 2009). Semi-structured interviews have been

conducted to gather data for this thesis. They are a combination of structured interviews

with pre-determined questions and more flexible one allowing new ideas to be brought up

during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. The structured part of the

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interview has for main purpose to generate specific information from the respondents. In a

semi-structured interview, a list of questions is prepared and can be the starting point to

explore a subject or an issue (Merriam, 2009). The questionnaire used for the interviews

was composed of five main topics: the revenue distribution of the club, the attendance rate

and the determinants of attendance, the customer relationship management (CRM) systems

and the DATA collection, the Fan Experience during match-day and lastly the connectivity of

the stadium. Additional questions were asked during the interviews depending on the

respondents answers. Interviews with the stadiums managers have helped me to get an

understanding on how the clubs were dealing with variations in attendance, how they were

considering the concepts of Fan Engagement and Fan Experience and how it could be

applied to their management. Also I obtained great insights on the financial issues that they

may be facing to initiate future investments related to this topic. I specifically chose the

stadium managers as spokespersons inside the clubs for the interviews. The position of

stadium manager is validated by a diploma obtained in one and unique university in France

(Université de Limoges). Created in 2007, it brings global knowledge on how to operate a

stadium (ticketing, security, hospitalities…).

The other interviews conducted are the following. Benjamin Viard, director of the stadium

commission at the Ligue Professionnelle de Football explained me his close collaboration

with the clubs, especially how the commission tries to help the clubs getting a better

understanding of the supporters. Two interviews have been undertaken with specialists of

Fan Engagement and Fan Experience in football: firstly with Bas Schnater, who has been a

season ticket holder for Ajax for a few years, graduated in sport marketing and found himself

passionate by Fan Engagement when he went to Australia for a year of studies. He noticed

that clubs were focusing very much on their fans. After he went back to Nederland, he

decided to create his own company about Fan Engagement and to write articles on this

subject on his website: fanengagement.nl. The second expert is Mark Bradley who was a

writer and consultant interested in organizational design and customer service. He believed

that exposing organizations to their customer’s genuine experiences could work as a catalyst

for thinking differently about organizational challenges. He is now advising football clubs in

United Kingdom about their relation with the fans and the match-day experience.

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This paper has also been written with the help of various documents, articles published on

the internet (given the novelty of the concepts) but also supported by three scientific

papers: “From CRM to FRM: applying CRM in the football industry” (Adamson, Jones, Tapp,

2005), “An investigation of the effect of Fan Relationship Management on Fan Lifetime

Value” (Ehsani, Izadi, Yoon, 2013) and “Can service quality predict spectators’ behavioural

intentions in professional soccer?” (Theodorakis, Alexandris, 2008). Different types of

information sources can be part of the documentation: letters, diaries, progress clipping (Yin,

2009). Internet is often the provider of those sources. Yin insists on the fact that documents

are used in case studies for increasing and strengthening other sources. The theoretical

framework is based on research and media articles. Mills (2003) stated the importance not

to rely only one source of data, interview or instrument. In research terms, this desire to use

multiple sources of data is referred to as triangulation (Mills, 2003). Yin (2009) describes four

types of triangulation: data source, investigator, theories and methodological. I used

multiple data sources in this thesis and multiple data collection methods. The conjoint use of

documents, open ended interviews and structured interviews conduct to reveal the facts

and enhance the validity of the research (Yin, 1994).

The data used for writing this paper can be classified as primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources which can be either written or oral testimony (Berg, 2007), are original

documents (diaries, speeches, interviews, letters) written or created during the time of the

study. The present study is based on interviews recorded by the author which correspond to

primary sources. E-mail correspondence which has been necessary for communicating with

one respondent is also considered as a primary source. Secondary sources, employed for

interpreting and analysing primary sources are documents that relates or discusses

information originally presented elsewhere. They can be for example textbooks, journal

articles or newspapers (Berg, 2007). The secondary sources in this thesis are journal articles

and other internet sources. Giving the novelty of the concepts discussed in the paper, the

amount of scientific literature used has been low. Most of the literature originates from

internet articles linked to scientific articles.

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2.4 Quality of Research

The quality of a research can be assets thanks to its validity and reliability. In qualitative

research, validity relates to the certainty and truthfulness of a study. Grönmo (2006) states

that validity is defined as the legality of the collected data in relation to the problem

specifications the researcher is set to study. Yin (2009) divided it in three parts: construct

validity, internal validity and external validity.

To meet the test of construct validity the researcher need to select multiple sources of

evidence. Case studies may contain a lack of validity depending on the use of subjective

judgments by the researcher when collecting the data (Yin, 2009). To build the construct

validly of the thesis, different football clubs with different backgrounds have been used. I

chose to interview at least five clubs with different sporting objectives and financial power.

This might have made the collection subjective but also help to get more versatility in the

collected data.

External validity deals with the problem of generalizing. The question is to determine

whether or not it is possible to use the study for similar areas and to know if the results can

be useful for other areas. Yin (2003) affirms that case studies are offering a poor basis for

generalization. But this study is based on multiple case studies and the sporting and financial

characteristics of the five clubs are different from each other and so are corresponding to

many other clubs in the French league. So we can say that the results are applicable on

them. In order to be able to generalize Yin (2003) states that the study should be conduct in

a few similar places and with the same results to get strong support to the generalization.

There are only five respondents to this study which had for effect to produce similar

outcomes even if small differences have been noticed.

Internal validity is used when causal case studies are written and the researcher wants to

explain if certain actions led to certain phenomenon. The importance of considering all the

possibilities and different factors is underlined. Primary data is generally considered as a

superior source of internal validity because the researcher is establishing a system of data

collection which suits to the project and the empirical reality being studied (Thietart, 2001).

A way to increase the internal validity is the use of triangulation (Merriam, 2009). This study

is composed of multiple sources of data which helps to get a more complete picture of the

situation.

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Reliability is defined by the idea that if the research would be done all over again by another

researcher, the findings and results would be the same (Yin, 2003). It was to be noticed that

the same cases would have to be used. The interviews being undertaken with specific

persons inside the organizations (stadium managers), it should minimize errors and biases in

the study. In order to make the study reliable, the recordings of each interview have been

saved and transcribed. This can serve other researchers to understand how the questions

were asked to the respondents and how those respondents answered the questions. Most of

the interviews being done by phone conversations and not during person-to-person

meeting, this might have affected the reliability of the research.

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3. Theoretical framework

3.1 Football Club economics in Europe

3.1.1 Financial models: from SSSL to MMMMG

Professional sport emerged during the 1870th under the influence of the industrial revolution

in Great Britain. Since then, every sport has seen its commercial exploitation being

developed (Bourg, 1999). The supporter became a client, the athlete a worker and the sport

organization a brand.

The revenue model of European football clubs has undergone profound changes during the

last two decades (Andreff and Staudohar, 2000): when ticketing was the essential source of

revenue during most of the 20th century, fees for television rights are now the most

important revenue source (Lund, 2011). It is not before 1990 that the clubs revenue became

more diversified with television revenue, merchandising and sponsorship (Dobson and

Goddard, 2001). In the 1970s, revenue from gate receipts of professional teams were

representing 81% of total revenue and sponsors less than 1%. In France, football clubs such

as Saint-Etienne, Lille, and Paris were receiving two thirds of their revenue from gate

receipts (Andreff, 2000). The rest of the revenue were coming from municipal government

subsidies. This model has been referred as SSSL (Spectators-Subsidies-Sponsors-Local) by

Andreff. It existed for a long time in all European countries. In countries where public

institutions were not allowed to finance clubs, it was replaced by private donations and

memberships fees. Television rights sales first appeared in France for the season 1980-1981.

But it was not an important source of funds to the clubs. Professional leagues and clubs did

not see this new source of revenue fitting into their business model. In 1965, in France, a

proposal of 50 000 franc has been refused by the Stade Rennais FC for broadcasting one of

their football match. In England a few years later, the British Football Premier League

rejected a BBC proposal of a million pounds for live broadcast of championship matches in

1967 (Andreff, 2000). The main reason for refusing the deals was the fear that broadcasted

matches would have for effect to decrease attendance at the stadium which would hit hard

on the major source of revenue of the clubs. Also the amount of money proposed was not

sufficient to content them. There was only one public television at the time so no

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competition among potential broadcasters. In the end the rights fees were not important

enough to compensate for lost gate receipts.

Nowadays, European professional football clubs no longer have the SSSL model for financial

structure. The need for clubs to modify their model has been arising with the inflation of

wages costs during the 1990s and the necessity to find new sources of revenue to support

this uncontrolled growth. New sources of revenue rose and old ones diminished.

Researchers established new financial models for football clubs. Lund (2011) explained that

the new model was based on four attributes: media, corporations, merchandising and

markets. The broadcasting media have undoubtedly modified the business model of football

clubs, mainly because of the amount of money indirectly paid (through national institutions)

to the clubs but also by creating awareness for corporate sponsors through the enlarged

audience they are offering. The sponsoring corporations have brought new revenue and

helped with products improvement and marketing resources. Merchandising has been

developed to enhance fans loyalty, generate revenue and provide a greater exposure for the

sponsors. Finally, the markets, represented by the spectators, are still one of the core assets

of the clubs despite the fall in terms of ticketing revenue in the 5 biggest European

championships.

As for Andreff and Staudohar (2000), they proposed the model of MMMMG (Medias,

Corporations, Merchansing, Markets, and Global). This model rests on price and quality

variables: television contracts attract sponsors who inflate revenue to the broadcasting

networks which justify more generous rights fees to the club or the league. The monopolistic

situation of the 1980s when a single channel was negotiating rights with several competing

leagues or clubs is no longer in place. Since the 1990s, unique suppliers such as professional

leagues sell their events to several competing television channels. In that case broadcasting

rights fees are far higher than with the SSSL model. Overall, the entry of new attributes into

the model MMMMG forces clubs to maximise their return from not only the stadium but

also from television, merchandising and capital markets. In the previous model, clubs were

focusing on maximising sporting results to obtain more home matches and increase their

ticketing revenue. Since the new model appeared, they are aiming every season for the

qualification to European cups in order to collect their share of the enormous TV broadcast

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revenue and get more exposition to attract new sponsors. Andreff states that with this new

model, fewer links can be drawn between the nationality of the clubs and the one of the

investors, banks or players gravitating around the clubs, the financial model evolving from

local financing (SSSL) to global financing (MMMMG). Another characteristic of the MMMMG

model is the creation of a new stream of revenue: merchandising. When the old model

(SSSL) was based on economies of scale (variation in attendance), the new model brings

economies of scope with the bigger range of products offered (Andreff, 2000).

If this researcher predicts that the model MMMMG will be maintained over a long time in

European football, Andreff and Staudohar (2000) point out some of its negative effects.

Firstly it is a financial model that favours the superiority of rich clubs. The absence of

mechanisms to regulate the transfer market leads to the monopolising of best talents by the

richest clubs creating two-tier championships. These powerful clubs have a higher

probability of qualifying, winning European cups events and earning extra revenue from

UEFA. Secondly this model, creating revenue dependence for football clubs, gives the TV

broadcasters a controlling position over the clubs. They can oblige modifications concerning

the activity itself to make it more marketable. Also they choose when and at what time

fixtures have to be played. Andreff (2000) encourages governments and National institutions

to bring more regulation into the model to fight against those abuses.

3.1.2: Revenue streams evolution: comparison between Ligue 1 and Bundesliga

Professional football revenue in the top European five championships have been multiplied

by almost four during the last twenty years: from €2.5 billion in 1996-1997, it reached €9.3

billion in 2011-2012 (Deloitte, 2012) with an annual growth of more than 10%. They are

representing more than 69% of total revenue in European football (UEFA annual report

2012). Considering the twenty richest football clubs, only two (Galatasaray and Fenerbahce)

are located outside the top five championships: six in England, four in Italy, four in Germany,

three in Spain and one in France. Their revenue grew by 8% last year (€5.4 billion). To gain a

place in the top 30 in 2012-2013, it was necessary to generate excess of at least €100m

when fifteen years ago, only one club generated over €100m: Manchester United. TV

broadcasting rights fees, match-day revenue and sponsoring/advertising revenue constitute

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most of the revenue of the football clubs in Europe but their distribution vary from countries

to countries. In Germany, England and Spain, there is a good balance between the third

principal revenue sources (broadcasting rights, match-day and sponsoring). However, in Italy

and France, the broadcasting rights fees constitute in average 60% of the total revenue and

clubs are strongly depending on it to achieve their financial equilibrium every season.

In France, the financial model mutation happening in the eighties had a strong impact on the

different revenue streams of the football clubs. Spectator’s revenue dropped from 81% in

1970-1971 to 50% in 1985-1986 and 19.9% in 1997-1998 (Andreff, 2000) before pluming to

12% of clubs total revenue in 2011-2012 (LFP, 2012). The share of subsidies into clubs

revenue went from 18% in 1970-1971 to 11.8% in 1997-1998 and less than 6% in 2011-2012.

On the contrary, sponsorships and advertising deals grew from 1% in the 1970s to 26% in

1997-1998 but declined to 17% in 2011-2012. Finally broadcasting rights fees which were

insignificant forty years ago ascend to 42,5% in 1997-1998 and rose to 58% in 2011-2012.

With the intent to provide guidelines for French football clubs on how to implement a better

Fan relationship management and offset match-day revenue, we have to compare the

French model to the one that is seen as the most sustainable in Europe. Since a few years,

Bundesliga financial model is perceived as an example of how football clubs have to diversify

their revenue in order to avoid the dependency to one source of revenue. And if this paper is

before everything focusing on how to improve clubs revenue, it cannot be ignored that the

financial health of the German clubs is paired with their sporting success on the European

level: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund having reached the final of the Champion’s

League in 2013.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1970-1971 1997-1998 2005-2006 2011-2012 Ligue 1 revenue distribution source LFP

Spectators

Subsidies

sponsorships/advertising

TV broadcasting fees

20

Here is below the two revenue streams of Bundesliga and Ligue 1 for the season 2011-2012.

From the first look, we notice the difference in terms of percentage of share for each

income. In Bundesliga, broadcasting rights revenue represent only 26% of the total incomes

when in Ligue 1 it reaches 58%. Also the revenue of sponsoring are 10 points more

important than in the French league. Finally, the match-day revenue are only about 12% in

France whereas in Germany 21% of the total revenue origins from this income.

For the first time in his history, Bundesliga recorded revenue of over €2 billion in 2011-2012.

It represented an increase of 7% compared to the previous year and 81% compared to ten

years earlier (€1 103 million in 2003-2004). France has achieved a more substantial growth in

percentage (+91%) but not in value: €654 million in 2003-2004 to €1252 million in 2012-

2013. To summarise, last year, French clubs earned as much as German clubs were earning

ten years ago. And the gap between the revenue won by Ligue 1 and Bundesliga is enormous

(+€800 million for 2011-2012). This financial power is an incontestable advantage when the

transfer period occurs or player’s contracts have to be extended. At the end it is the

competitiveness of the clubs in Europe which is favoured. In the next pages we will study

more in details the evolution of the revenue distribution between the two leagues and the

factors that may have impacted on the success of the German model in general and more

precisely in regard to the match-day revenue.

21%

21% 27%

26%

5%

Bundesliga Revenue Stream (2011-2012)

Matchdays

Othersproducts

Sponsoring/Advertising

BroadcastingRights

Merchandising

12%

13%

17% 58%

Ligue 1 Revenue Stream (2011-2012)

Matchdays

Othersproducts

Sponsoring/Advertising

BroadcastingRights

21

3.1.3 Match-day revenue: Bundesliga the model to follow ?

In Bundesliga, match-day revenue have stabilized at 21% of the total revenue since the

season 2006/2007: from €372 million in 2006-2007, it grew to 440 million in 2011-2012

which constituted an augmentation of 19%. During the same period, match-day revenue in

France went from €156 million to €147 million, a decline of 6% in five year.

Also Germany is the unique country in the top 5 European leagues where the share of the

broadcasting revenue in the total revenue of the clubs has been stabilized during the last 10

years (DFL Bundesliga report, 2012). From 26,7% in 2003/2004 (€440 million), it was

representing 26,5% (€553 million) for the season 2011-2012 (DFL Bundesliga report, 2008-

2012). In France, broadcasting TV incomes were about 47% (€120 million) of total revenue in

2003-2004 and reached 58% (€712 million) in 2011-2012.

When French clubs could not avoid the progression of their dependence to the broadcasting

rights and observed their match-day revenue dropping, German clubs stabilized their

financial model and maintained their match-day revenue at about 20% of their total incomes

every season. How did the Germain clubs performed so well? It all started in 1990 after ten

year of constant fall in attendance (average of 16000 spectators per game in 1988-89) when

a rebound appeared and the attendance started a huge increase to achieve the average of

45 116 spectators per game in 2011-2012 (which is by far the highest in Europe). Many

aspects explain this progression, and the most important one is the organization of two

international competitions within the last twenty five years: the European Championship in

1988 and the 2006 World-Cup. During this period of time, Germany built or renovated

numerous stadiums and it certainly contributed to improve the attendances and match-day

revenue of the clubs. Researchers have studied the links between stadium quality and

attendance at sporting events. The investigation of Wiid and Cant (2013) found that male

spectators were concerned with components of the service experience other than the core

product (sport event). This supports of the marketing principle that some customers will

evaluate not only the core product but also the services offered in making their satisfaction

judgments, even in spectator sport. Others showed that demand for live sporting events can

be impacted by a variety of non-player quality aspects such as the quality of the venue

(McDonald and Rascher, 2000). Clapp and Hakes (2005) studied the increase in attendance

22

after renovations or constructions of stadiums in the United States and found out that

attendances were increasing by 32% to 37% the opening year of a new stadium, they called

it the “honeymoon” effect. Feddersen, Maennig and Malte Borcherding (2006) explored the

“novelty effect of new soccer stadia” on attendance in Germany between the season 1963-

1964 and 2003-2004. They analysed the variation of attendance after new stadiums

constructions or renovations. Their conclusion is that –with few exceptions- an increase in

average spectator numbers followed on from the completion of stadium constructions or

reconstruction projects. They stated that this effect was particularly strong after the first

season in the new stadium and had a tendency to persistence over the next years. Also the

conclusion of their paper underlined the fact that the surplus of revenue obtained from

stadium construction was not essentially the consequence of the increase of football fans in

the stadium but rather “that the buying power of a relatively low number of wealthy

spectators was absorbed more effectively.” The organization of the two major competitions

in Germany allowed the clubs to take advantage of the renovations and constructions of

stadiums. They constructed safe environments for spectators and focused on creating the

best welcoming conditions for fans. Also they built strong and complete VIP packages with

services and boxes adapted to the needs and wants of the richest supporters. A few years

ago when German clubs realized that they could not compete with English or Spanish clubs

to get the best European players, they decided to improve their infrastructure to catch up on

them. Undoubtedly the organization of the FIFA Wold-Cup in 2006 has played a major part in

this success. An impressive sum of €1.4 billion was invested in the twelve stadia that hosted

the 2006 World Cup matches (Nufer and Fisher, 2013). We have here maybe one of the key

points that explain the delay of French clubs concerning match-day revenue. Admittedly,

new French stadiums have also been built or renovated for the 1998 Wold-Cup but they

have not been renovated since. The major weakness of the French club is the deterioration

of its stadia. This has been confirmed by the stadium managers I interviewed in the second

part of the thesis.

The pricing strategy of the German clubs is another factor which can explain those

impressive figures (+19% for match-day revenue since 2006-2007 and +35% for the

attendance rate since1988-1989). Nufer and Fischer (2013) studied the pricing strategy in

23

Bundesliga for the season 2012-2013. They concluded that the Bundesliga ticket prices were

the cheapest among Europe’s top leagues: 12.4€ was in average the price for the cheapest

tickets in Bundesliga, 17€ in Serie A (Italy), 30€ in La Liga (Spain) and 34€ in Premier League

(The Guardian, 2013). They are also the cheapest concerning the most expensive tickets: 57€

in average, against 70€ in Premier League, 112€ in Serie A and 146€ in La Liga. In France for

the season 2013-2014, the cheapest tickets were about 11.5€ in average and the most

expensive were around 75€ in average (Sportune, 2013).

Concerning the cheapest tickets for top games, prices at Allianz Arena (Bayern Munich

stadium) were starting at 15€ and 18€ at Signal Iduna Park (Borussia Dortmund stadium). In

the other top European clubs, prices started at 23€ for AC Milan, 28€ for Inter Milan, 38€ for

Manchester United, 58€ at the Emirates stadium (Arsenal FC) and 89€ at the Camp Nou (FC

Barcelona stadium). The most expensive tickets were 80€ for Borussia Dortmund and 70€ for

Bayern Munich. They were not cheaper than 114€ for Arsenal FC (See figure below).

Another asset of the Bundesliga is the fact that clubs have strong fan bases. 27 000 season

tickets were sold in average for the 2011-2012 which represented a new record for the

league. The number of season tickets sold per club increased by 1,091 (4.3%) to an average

of 26,470, thus accounting for a share of around 60% of all tickets sold. Lastly less than

114

63

265

165 170

80 70

58 38

89

23 28 18 15 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Arsenal FC ManchesterUnited

FC Barcelona Milan FC Inter Milan BorussiaDortmund

Bayern Munich

Ticket price ranges for top games (season 2011-2012)

Nufer and Fischer 2013

24

2% of fans (823) have not paid their ticket when going to the stadium that year. In France,

this figure represented 23% of the total attendance for each game the same season (LFP,

2013). French clubs should improve their strategy to educate supporters to pay for going to

the stadium. The loss of income was about €35 million for Ligue 1 due to unpaid spectators

in 2011-2012 (LFP 2013).

3.2 From Customer Relationship Management to Fan Relationship Management

3.2.1. Customer Relationship Management

CRM is defined by Bligh and Turk (2004) as an initiative that organizes the firm into a more

customer focused, attractive and individual customer tailored service, by ensuring the best

practices for managing and integrating sales, services and marketing processes. They also

explain that software technologies have to be used in order to integrate the sales and

marketing processes but also to capture and centralize customer information.

The execution of a successful CRM strategy can only be achieved if the company primary

focuses on the customer and rethink its customer approach strategy and the way it acts

towards him. Also new strategies have to be implemented by the managers so that the new

way of thinking is the general attitude throughout the organization (Robert-Phelps, 2001).

The same researcher state that three keys elements have to be part of the CRM strategy to

guarantee its success: the first one is customer retention which can be resumed as the

actions undertaken by the company to reduce customer defection: obtaining new

customers is more difficult and expensive than keeping the current clients. This activity

appears when the customer buys the product and it continues throughout the entire lifetime

of the relationship. The second element is the development of potential customers which

include turning a casual customer into a loyal customer and ultimately into a brand advocate

who will promote products and passes on positive word-of-mouth messages about the

brand to other people. The third essential element for performing a successful CRM strategy

is the selections of customers also called segmentation. It is crucial to target customers with

the most potential and avoid the ones that are the most distant from the core target.

Loftis, Geiger and Imhoff (2004), Mankoff (2001) consider other factors to be vital for a good

CRM implementation: create a coordinated, customer-focused business strategy and

25

establish measurable business goals, establish a CRM-savvy organizational culture and get

executive support up front, create a CRM- friendly organizational structure and invest in

training to empower end users and implement an integrated customer information

environment and measure, monitor, and track the development.

The benefits of CRM are underlined by Tourniaire (2003), Chen and Chen (2004). Firstly it is

cost saving: it boosts employees’ productivity by bringing an easier way to reach potential

customers, to increase sells and helps to improve service. CRM is also increasing customer

satisfaction and loyalty: customer services are multiplied; companies are quicker to answer

customers’ needs, increasing employees’ efficiency. CRM can offset companies’ profits: it is a

direct consequence of cost saving and increased customer loyalty. Internal accountability is

ameliorated thanks to a better tracking of information flow (transactions and deliveries),

team managers are able to evaluate more precisely team performances and the

coordination between teams of other departments is enhanced. Finally employee’

satisfaction progresses through the use of new tools to helps them in their interactions with

customers. Personal turnover is reduced and productivity is improved.

CRM certainly brings many benefits to a company but also contains various risks for the

organization and can possibly fail to produce any good results. The changes brought by

management have multiple impacts on the whole organization: modifications are affecting

the way the company interacts with its customers but also the working habits of the

employees. The cost of a CRM failure can be colossal. Financial performance can be

impacted with market share losses or high cost of CRM implementation. Customer quality

service may suffer from the disorganization occurring during the changing process leading to

lower customer services. The brand image can also be damaged if the customers feel

confused or frustrated. Lastly, a wrong CRM strategy can have cultural impacts within the

organization: employees may not believe in the company chances of adaptability to the

various changes (Bligh and Turk, 2004).

The fail of a CRM execution is often due to a lack of senior leadership, when top

management is either not engaged at all or lose interest in the process (Bligh and Turk,

2004). Gentle (2002) highlights the importance of CRM solution supporters to be are the

right positions within the organization in order to influence and lead the processes of

change.

26

A study conducted by Ernest-Jones (2004) confirmed the risks and possible failures

mentioned before. UK executives explained that the main problems when creating a new

CRM strategy were capture of customer data, analyse of this specific data and lack of

training for people handling data analysing software.

Creation and implementation of a new CRM strategy is a long term process that keeps

running after the first changes in the organization are effective. It must be carefully managed

over time and an excellent user adoption at first does not insure a long term success (Bligh

and Turk, 2004).

CRM systems are run through the use of different software which are designed with two

majors elements: front and back office systems. They integrate sales, services and marketing

processes (Sölgén and Wiklund, 2009). Front office system is the direct interface linking the

customer to the software. Those interfaces have to be relevance, simple and understandable

for the customer to be able to use it. Services they provide are sales automation, orders

entry transactions or connection to personal accounts… (Gay et al, 2007). The

communication channel between the seller and the buyer is simplified with the support of

the customer service.

Back offices are acting as supporting functions for the seller: it involves collecting, recording

and analysing the costumer activities. It also implicates invoicing, shipping information

processes and tools to assess the current performances and make forecasts (Gay et al,

2007).

A selection needs to be done in order to select the CRM system that will best suit the

business strategy of the company. Different categories exist corresponding to various types

of software systems: pre-integrated solutions for an easier realisation, point solutions for

specific focus on one area, vertical solution for specific industries… CRM systems are sell as

licensed software or software. If a company buys a complete solution, it requires to have

employees able to master the tool. When opting for a packaged solution, the company

works closely with the software provider to manage and improve its tool.

27

3.2.2 CRM in football

3.2.2.1 Fan Relationship Management

The principal aim of CRM strategies is to build a strong relationship between customers and

companies. Before very recently, football clubs often had the assumption that loyalty in this

sport was much greater than in other industries and that they did not need to cultivate this

relationship. In consequence, the football industry has not been an early adopter of CRM.

This is also due to the complexity of the sport sector; clubs always have struggled to

introduce good customer relationship management strategies and they have been criticized

for not having a good knowledge of their fans. Because there are crucial differences between

football and conventional businesses, Adamson, Jones and Tapp (2006) have developed a

conceptual framework for the football sector named Football Relationship Management.

The reason why they created this new framework for football clubs is because there were

not any existing CRM models including the specificities of this sport. When designing this

framework, researchers incorporated theories and lessons from traditional CRM. They

noticed that most of the exchanges between clubs and fans were based on commercial deals

(season ticket sells, merchandising sales…) and a very small part of the communication was

focused on building relationships with supporters. Even if a few clubs were making efforts in

this sense (Charlton Athletic, Norwich City and Ipswich Town cited as examples), trying to

create a more intimate relation with their fans with loyalty programs, they were exceptions.

Most clubs were paying little attention to the core features of relationship marketing which

are mutual benefit and commitment to continue the relationship. Football clubs have

started implementing CRM strategies because they were interested in their customers, not

in their fans. Gronroos (1994) defines relationship marketing as the essence of business. It is

more than a simple strategy for a company: a philosophy that is deeply held by all in the

company, placing a commitment to its customers higher than maximizing short term profits.

He highlights the fact that relationship marketing often fails because the strategy

implemented is seen as an option to be tested by the company whether it should be a set of

enduring beliefs that shape all aspects of the business.

Some parts of the CRM strategies apply particularly to the sport sector and the focus on the

relation between customers/fans and companies/clubs is one of them.

The conceptual model for FRM by Adamson, Jones and Tapp takes account of the unique

28

nature of football as a business and the special nature of its customers: the fans. The first

stage of their model and prerequisite to implementation of FRM is segmentation. Because of

the considerable heterogeneity of the customer base in football, segmentation is necessary

to structure FRM models. The variable chosen can vary. Supporters may be split by their

differing value to the club, their differing loyalty, their differing psychological and physical

needs from the club or their geo-demographic characteristics. Very few studies have been

conducted to define a typology of fan characteristics. In the United States, Hunt, Bristol and

Bashaw (1999) determined five types of fans: the temporary fan (a fan for a specific period

who reverts back to normal patterns of behaviour), the local fan (fan’s motivation for

supporting a sports team, event or player is geographically based, suggesting that if this

person moved to another area then the original identification with the team would

significantly reduce), the devoted fan (who remains loyal to the team despite time or

geographical boundaries), the fanatical fan (obsessive type of support of a team or

individual, but where at least one aspect of their lives provides identification that is stronger

than being a fan) and the dysfunctional fan (Those individuals who gain their main source of

self identification from their object of support. Hooligans reside in this category). Tapp and

Clowes (2002) classified fans using two variables: supporter benefits and supporter

behavioural commitment. Their segmentation highlights the importance of the priority that

different groups of supporters place on their team winning versus the entertainment

provided by the game (carefree casual fans would be happy with a result of 3-3 when

“fanatics” would rather prefer a 1-0 win). Some supporters who find winning as the main

criteria of their commitment may switch allegiance to another club (Tapp, 2004). Usually

there is a loss of interest in the team, fans ceasing supporting actively their club for a period

of time depending on the sporting results (Tapp, A. and Clowes, 2002).

The second stage of the FRM model is the capacity of clubs to address each type of

supporter with relationship strategies determined by economics (cost vs benefits of club

approach) and supporter psychology (Adamson, Jones and Tapp). Hard core fans are the

most difficult target to deal with. They have a very strong relation to the club, spend lot of

money into tickets and expect to be rewarded for it. They are craving recognition for their

loyalty.

29

The third and final stage of the model is the success evaluation with key measures. It often

means measuring profits versus loss (Adamson, Jones and Tapp).

3.2.2.2 Fan Engagement

As we have seen before, many researchers observed that there were issues concerning the

implementation of relationship management by football clubs. Understand what the fans

want and how to offer them the right services are not easy tasks. That is why new concepts

have recently been added to the Football Relationship Management model. They provide

solutions for engaging the fans. Mark Bradley who is advising football clubs and federations

on fan relationship defines Fan Engagement as the process by which supporter value is

created and delivered. Fan value, when delivered consistently, increases a supporter’s

emotional loyalty to his or her club. As Bradley notices it, there are only very few other

industries that engender such emotional commitment as sport. But clubs fail to use that

emotional commitment and sell a product instead of selling an all-enveloping experience. By

doing this, clubs are not creating emotional loyalty and erode supporter’s existing love for

the clubs, converting regular attendees into TV watchers (Mark Bradley, 2013). Bas Schnater,

a Dutch consultant about Fan Engagement has another definition: “it is the process of

revaluating relationships between fans and sport clubs”. He supports the idea that football

clubs are not focusing enough on how to interact with supporters.

Bas Schnater gives an anecdote about a Dutch club which had 30% of his season tickets

holders that did not renew their memberships the next season but another 30% who

became season tickets holders for the first time. At the end the club was happy with the

situation. But they could not explain why the old season tickets holders did not renew. For

Bas Schnater, it shows that some clubs care too much about numbers and not enough about

relationships. Bradley and Schnater are convinced that there is a need for Fan Engagement

in football. If clubs want to stabilize or increase their stadium attendances, they have to

work on creating supporter’s value. Bradley insists on the fact that for clubs to grow their

attendances, they have to try understanding the deeper connections, that will help them

uncover the club’s values / identity and that can be a starting point for re-engaging with

supporters. From his experience as a consultant, often the clubs / leagues / associations

have a very narrow view of what their ‘product’ is and who their ‘customers’ are and what

30

they want. They tend to lack an external perspective and, as a result, may end up providing

things that their ‘customers’ do not want. Sometimes there has also been a reluctance to

consult with supporters, which means that many clubs do not really understand the nature

of the relationship between the supporter and his or her club. For example, clubs often

behave like it is all about performance on the pitch, but Bradley thinks that the emotional

connection goes much deeper than that. With a fuller understanding of the emotional

factors in the supporter relationship, Bradley states that clubs which are able to describe

what truly motivates fans can build a relation that transcends sporting performances.

To perform Fan Engagement, there is a need to understand the origins of the commitment

supporters have to their club. Focus has to be put on fans motivations and what matters is

not only how the club defines its DNA but more importantly how fans characterize it

(Bradley, 2013). He points out one of the keys problems of French clubs and globally most

football clubs in Europe: understanding fan’s behaviours. As you will notice in the interviews

conducted with French stadium managers in the following pages, the major issue for Ligue 1

clubs is to get a proper understanding of who are the fans and why do they come to the

stadium. Successful CRM needs efficient knowledge management process. Knowledge is a

strategic resource for organizations and especially for football clubs (Ehsani et al. 2013).

Knowledge management is defined as “knowledge about customers, which includes

knowledge about potential customers, customer segments and individual customers” by

Rowley (2004). Knowledge gained on customers/fans enable companies/clubs to make

intelligent decisions as to which customer to acquire and develop what channels to use to

reach him and what type of product may interest him (Xu and Walton, 2005). Bas Schnater

thinks that knowledge management should become a major concern for football clubs:

“clubs should be able to have information on fans such as who are in each stand, each seat

of the stadium and what do they consume. The technics are there. The fans have kept

developing themselves in terms of how they communicate with each other and how they

share information. It is time for clubs to capture this DATA.”

In order to engage fans on match-day, clubs have to provide services that will meet their

expectations. Schnater evokes the concept closely linked to Fan Engagement: the Fan

Experience. He explains: “Here in Nederland, the broadcaster channels have implemented

lots of new services to enhance the experience of the TV viewers. The substitutes to the

31

stadium are so strong that it definitely keeps a part of the fans away from the stadium, not

all of them, because there are other reasons like the financial crisis, the weather, the team

performance but the Fan Experience is definitely a variable to consider.” Service quality has

always been a serious concern for football clubs as it is a major determinant of stadium

attendance. While most clubs have mainly focused on providing on-field quality service

(maximizing sport performances) by investing in players and coaches, some clubs started

also concentrating on secondary quality services (Ehsani et al. 2013) because spectator’s

behaviours are changing. There are still hard core fans that care only about the positive

outcome of the game. But there are also spectators who attend games not uniquely for the

sporting event itself (for social reasons, business reasons, family obligations, etc.). For them

the service in the stands may become the most important aspect in determining their

satisfaction with the event (Ehsani et al. 2013) and encourage them to come back. Bas

Schnater adds: “Nowadays supporters have all what they need at home, they are sometimes

wondering why they should go to the stadium when it is 3°c outside…” The concept of Fan

Experience is slowly gaining football clubs even if there have not been any studies

concerning this topic. It is still scientifically difficult to prove that some supporters would be

more motivated to attend a football game if their experience was enhanced. Mike Bradley

who works closely with the Football League in England (the four professionals divisions

bellow the Premier League) has conducted studies in football clubs, asking the spectators

about their motivation to attend a game. His conclusions are the following: “Only a few

percentages of responses to a typical match day survey I have done produces responses such

as ‘I am just here for the football’. More usually fans explain that, for many years, they have

not been valued by their clubs. Given the improvements in customer service in other parts of

their lives, they realize that they are not treated the same way by their football club. They

want to feel more valued.” Bradley is certain that enhancing the Fan Experience by creating

new services for fans will offset clubs match-day revenue. He draws a connection between

fans not wanting to spend money in their own stadiums and a lack of dialogue prior to that.

He gives two examples of successful collaborations between football clubs and fans: “I have

seen a number of examples of fans becoming involved in designing new services with their

clubs and then those services producing excellent results. Cardiff’s beer purchase system

(designed by fans to speed up service) led to a 40% increase in beer revenue in 6 months,

while Middleborough’s introduction of a local delicacy to the concourse, led to the doubling

32

of per capita supporter spend the season after relegation.” Bas Schnater agrees with Bradley

by saying that the revenue per seat in the stadiums can be offset with the help of Fan

Engagement. When we evoke Fan Experience and Fan Engagement, the implementation of a

WIFI network in the stadium comes often to mind. Bradley temper the absolute necessity of

such investments: “It’s clear that social media / WIFI and other technologies do require

heavy investments and it is difficult or impossible for every clubs to put so much money in

that. But WIFI is only one tactical aspect of Fan Engagement. For me it’s a more strategic

concept that is based on getting closer to the supporter, understanding what matters and

then working with them on how best to address the opportunities to emerge.” Bas Schnater

sees those future investments as inevitable for clubs. They will have to adapt to the new way

fans consume sport events: “Implementing Fan Engagement tools is thinking differently in

terms of creating value for the fans. Value is not always about money. The way

consumer/supporters enjoy a match is constantly evolving. You can see in the stands, the

person on your right, the one on your left, they are checking their mobile phone at least

three times during the match to get information about other scores or to use social

networks. The behaviour of supporters has changed, the clubs have to adapt.”

As we have seen before, Fan Relationship Management and by extent Fan Engagement, in

order to be conducted with success, requires three main attributes: Knowledge

Management, Service Quality and Organizational Support. Ehsani (2013) has researched if

some of FRM characteristics (KM, SQ and OS) could predict Fan Lifetime Value (FLV).

Customer/fan Lifetime Value is defined as the profit produced by all of the steps that an

enterprise takes to maintain a relationship with the same customer (Ing Wu & Chi Li, 2011).

The major variables of Fan Lifetime Value are consumption quantity, word of mouth, media

usage and attend intentions (Ehsani, 2013). The study demonstrated that knowledge

management was significantly linked to consumption quantity, word of mouth and attend

intentions. It confirms that developing fans knowledge can have a positive effect on match-

day revenue and stadium attendance. The results also indicated that organizational support

was an important predicator and played a central role in the success of FRM

implementation. As written before, there is a strong relationship between customer-

oriented organizations, implication of managers and successful CRM. Finally Ehsani

discovered that service quality was significantly related to consumption quantity, world of

33

mouth and attend intention. The researcher demonstrated that fan service quality and fan

lifetime value were closely linked. This is in concordance with Bas Schnater and Bradley

opinions that providing the right services to the supporters would increase their attachment

to the club because they would feel more valued. The results of this study show that

operators in the football clubs should work to realize customer value, increase service

quality, and consolidate knowledge from and for fans to improve their business performance

effectively (Ehsani, 2013).

34

4. Empirical study

4.1 Improving the Fan Experience

4.1.1 Addressing new customer needs

Until very recently, football clubs have primarily focused on delivering on-field performance

quality. Their match-day Fan Engagement strategies have been built around the ninety

minutes of the match. But they are starting to realize that fan’s motivations for attending

games and enjoying match-day have changed. Fans were previously expecting very few from

the club itself on match-day: they wanted to feel safe and have at least a little comfort. But

fans have offset their expectations of match-day experiences. They have now access to

services at home that impact their motivation for going to the stadium. Offering them a

simple football match without secondary services is no more enough to attract supporters at

the venue. Fans are craving for living a special experience, they are seeking for the unknown,

something that will surprise and amuse them, something that they do not expect and which

does not have to be related to the sporting event. In 2012, Cisco revealed in a study the

main reasons why American supporters are attending sporting events. 63% of the

respondents answered they were coming to “enjoy the atmosphere of the venue”, 43% said

they wanted to have a “good time with friends/family” and 20% wanted to “create

memories of the sport experience” (multiple answers possible). We see here the importance

for fans to create memories and live a special experience. When asking the reasons why they

do not attends sport events, 39% of respondents complained they sometimes sit too far

from the action to see what is happening clearly, 32% mentioned there were very limited

opportunities to watch replays, 32% protested against the fact that they can only watch a

single view of the game, finally 15% noticed the absence of statistical information about the

game. The third part of the study was investigating the reasons why fans prefer to stay at

home to watch the match on TV. 68% stated it was less expensive than going to the stadium,

33% said they wanted to be able to watch replays and 26% were interested by the

comments and explanations provided by the commentators. Globally, people stated they

prefer to stay at home because they had access to secondary services that were not

available at the stadium (Cisco 2012). For this reason, clubs need to review their entire

match-day events and create real “journeys to the match” for supporters integrating new

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secondary services to enhance the Fan Experience. Of course basics services such as security,

comfort or catering are essential to attract the supporters but it is not enough anymore.

Half of sports fans use their smartphone to access online sports content. Also, there is a

growing number of people using a second screen services while watching sports on TV:

among devoted sports fans, 52.6 % use a tablet or smartphone to access online sports

content while watching sports on TV (mobilemarketer, 2012).

73% of sports fans bring their mobile to the sporting event (Cisco, 2012). In United Kingdom,

the annual report of the sport agency Perform reported that 39% of football fans in UK were

using their phone at live matches. In his Mobile Fan Survey, Cisco stated that 44% of fans

thought connectivity was very important to the overall match experience and the same

percentage of respondents desired to access social media networks to share their live

experience during the games. The Taiwanese manufacturer HTC tried to locate the Twitter

users during Champions League match. The results (collected during four matches of the first

day of competition in November 2013) shown that more than a third of all tweets are sent

from people inside the stadium (digimedia, 2013). Those numerous figures are proofs that

fans want to interact when they are watching a match at the stadium. Smartphones have

taken control at sport events. As Bas Schnater argues: “The way supporters enjoy a match is

constantly evolving. You can see in the stands, the person on your right, the one on your left,

they are checking their mobile phone at least three times during the match to get

information about other scores or to use Facebook/Twitter. The behaviour of supporters has

changed, the clubs have to adapt.”

4.1.2 Stadium 2.0 to serve Fan Engagement

The digitalization of sports events and the explosion of new technologies are forcing football

clubs to react: today is the era of the stadium 2.0. Boris Helleu, a university lecturer in sport

management, defines this new venue as a place which “exists outside of the event, is able to

interact with the fans and speaks up on the social networks”. The idea is to answer the need

of interactivity and assist the client during all his match-day, from his home to the football

match and until he leaves the event. The club should provide a multitude of services with the

use of smartphones as support to enhance the Fan Experience and engage its fans. The

connected stadium was born in United States. There, sports infrastructures are years ahead

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in terms of connectivity and interactions with fans on match-day. The MetLife stadium and

the Barleys Center in New York or the Cowboys Stadium in Texas are currently the most

sophisticated sports venues. They implemented services to assist spectators before they

reach the stadiums and until the leave the place. The emergence of the intelligent venue

changes the Fan Experience. With their smartphone, fans can have fresh information on the

match (time of kick off, weather, traffic information) before they reach the stadium. They

arrive there at least an hour before the match because they can spend time with their

family/friends at the bars or take part in activities organized by the club. They can connect to

the WIFI network and receive the last commercial offers. Also they access the last interviews

of the players. When they look for their seat, the app indicates them where to go. If they

want to consume, they can check the waiting lines of the catering stands on their devices. Or

order from their seats and pick up the food when it is ready. They also have access through

the app, to replays and statistical data about the match. Finally they are able to interact with

other supporters in the stands with social networks. Clubs are not just providing internet

access to their fans but they also use it to market fans online through apps, check-ins and

social media engagement. Once they have the WIFI capabilities to offer the second screen

experience, they can provide convenience and comfort that recreate the home viewing

experience and engage fans. Clubs also attract fans by offering discounts and prizes for geo-

location check-ins, holding real-time contests, promoting hashtags and featuring tweets

photos and videos on the big screens during the games. The teams do not only provide what

fans expect in terms of connectivity but they reward them for their devotion toward the club

which is precisely what defines Fan Engagement.

But in order to provide those services, clubs need to connect their stadium. If most of

American sport teams have stadiums equipped with WIFI networks, European football clubs

are just starting to do so. Very few clubs can pride themselves on having a full connected

stadium: Manchester City and Liverpool in England, Celtic Glasgow in Scotland, Real Madrid

and Barcelona in Spain. In Germany, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen are planning on

installing WIFI networks within the next months. Setting up a WIFI network requires

enormous investments and only few of the richest clubs have undertook such ambitious

projects in Europe. In Norway, the national football league decided to help the clubs by

financing the implementation of WIFI solutions. At the beginning of 2014, the league

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announced that it is set to become the first league in the world to install WIFI and mobile

video as a league solution. The need for these solutions was apparent in this country as

various surveys indicate that Norway was one of the world’s leading countries in use of

smartphones and Internet, 94 % of Norwegian football fans bringing their smartphone to

matches (Cisco, 2014). The league paired with one of the most experienced network

provider, Cisco System, who already works with many clubs in United States and Real Madrid

football club in Europe. Networks providers are continually developing their solutions to fit

to the specificities of the European market. And more than just offering the possibility to

install a WIFI network, they created complete solutions such as the Cisco StadiumVision

Mobile (SVM) by Cisco System. SVM allows the delivery of live video to tens of thousands of

mobile devices in a crowded sports and entertainment venue. This solution can guarantee

the following services to the fans: an alternative view on different camera angles, an on-

demand replay of the most recent 30 seconds of video, the possibility to watch out-of-town

games that are being played at the same time, receive real-time game statistics and fantasy

sports updates, having a choice of live game commentary (for example, stadium announcer,

home radio broadcast…), and finally allowing the club to create quizzes and trivia contests

that depend on all participants receiving the question at the same time.

In France there are no fully connected stadiums yet. The “stade des Lumières” which will be

constructed for the EURO 2016 in Lyon is set to become the first one in the country to

provide a WIFI network to supporters thanks to the help of Cisco System. We will learn more

about this project in the interview with the stadium manager of Olympique Lyonnais.

The recent built venues of Lille, Valenciennes and Le Mans are the most technologically

advanced in the country. But none are offering the possibility to connect to a WIFI network.

Other innovation have been implemented: all the transactions inside those stadiums are

made with membership cards that can be charged at cash machines around the venue. The

demonetization allows an important gain of time during the catering transactions but more

importantly it generates an efficient client database essential for clubs and their FRM

strategy. Information such as who consumes what, where and when are vital for clubs in

order to know the fans better and offer them the right services. Another technology that

French clubs are working on installing at their entrance gates is the Near Field

Communication (NFC). This technology is a short-range wireless allowing a pair of object to

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automatically communicate when they are within close range. The integration of NFC chips

into mobile devices permit consumers to easily receive dynamic, personalized content and

services. This technology has already been tested in France at “Stade de France” located in

Paris. NFC ticketing was introduced in 2011 with mobile operator Orange. The participants

had the ability to reserve their place at the game and a parking spot through the mobile app

(Askidentive, 2013). The NFC technology also allows in-game interacting offerings. The

French business venture New Visual Communication, specialized in commercializing

personalized seat covers for football clubs, recently introduced NFC chips in its products.

When approaching their smartphones near the back of the seat in front of them, supporters

are able to receive merchandising offers from the club or exclusive contents. The strength of

the concept is to touch the fan during the two hours of the sporting event. It allows the club

to offer targeted content in relation with the category of client sited in the stand. We can

imagine different types of advertisement or promotion according to the purchasing power of

the clients.

The implementation of those services to enhance the Fan Experience and engage the

supporters is very costly for the clubs. This is the main reason why they are struggling to

connect their venue. It requires an enormous initial investment to set up the network, but

also the necessity to have employees dedicated to the good working of the services. Extra

staff would have to be allocated to the welcoming of the fans, the different catering stations

or the delivery of the food in the stands. And the current financial situation in European

football does not favor such investments even if the gains can be massive. In fact, more than

the financial investments, it is the lack of knowledge concerning the economic benefits that

restrain most clubs from going forward in equipping their stadium. The implementation of

WIFI networks into venues is a new trend. It was been going for a few years in United States

but clubs are only starting to measure the benefits. This can explain the feebleness of

European football clubs in general and French clubs in particular to embrace this new way of

engaging fans during match-day.

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4.1.3 Increasing the Match-day revenue

As we have analysed previously, despite the increase in total revenue for most European

clubs, match-day revenue are failing, especially in France. Improving the Fan Experience can

permit clubs to face this situation. Indeed it does not only contribute to improve the

attendance by offering fans what they want, it can also impact the match-day revenue both

from ticketing and real-time marketing. Clubs need to know who their fans are and how they

consume at the stadium to create efficient commercial offers on match-day. The installation

of Fan Experience tools is a formidable opportunity to gather precise data about the

supporters. The amount of data that can be captured from the implementation of a WIFI

network and the different services is huge. Now if we imagine that we can multiply that by

all the fans that attended the same match and finally multiply it by every match during a

season, it becomes indispensable for a club to acquire such tools. These data, aggregated

and analysed, provide great opportunities to get closer to the fan. It has the potential to

open up new monetization opportunities throughout the match day. If the club create an

integrated fan-engagement model, it provides a 360 degree fan profile that combines

transaction data (date of last visit, attendance statistics, merchandise purchases) with Fan

Engagement dimensions (membership profile, ticket holder status). Then clubs can use the

technic of data mining to extract information from the data set and discover new

opportunities. That way, match-day revenue can be augmented through better targeted

customer’s offers. New services can be monetize and fans can be offered to pay for

exclusive, in-stadium services such as special video channels, instant access to team stats on

dedicated apps. Also sponsors can develop their own initiatives including loyalty based

schemes and real-time promotions. They can tailor their messages to selected audiences,

from the VIP to individual levels, which offer unprecedented segmentation capabilities to

deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Plus, if the clubs own this

customer data, they become particularly powerful when they have to negotiate sponsorship

contracts. This is depending on the deal they agreed with the network provider who can

decide to keep the data and manage the delivery of services over the network of the

stadium.

In France, the organization of the EURO 2016 might be a good opportunity to renovate and

build new venues which will contain WIFI networks and help the clubs which play

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competitions in those stadiums to offset their match-day revenue. In 2009, two French

experts, Frédéric Bolony and Dominique Debreyer, studied the financial impact of the

organization of EURO 2016 in France for the clubs. The researchers based their study on the

renovation and construction of stadiums for the competition. They analysed that the

augmentation of clubs ticketing revenue could be offset by 90% if the venues capacity was

increased from 25 000 seats to 34 000 with an average attendance rate of 75% (it was about

71% in Ligue 1 last season). They also calculated that hospitality revenue could be multiplied

by almost 3. Finally the simulation shown that clubs total revenue would be boost by 118%

which could modify their revenue stream: broadcasting rights potentially representing only

46% of the total revenue (61% in 2011/2012).

From the nine stadiums selected for EURO 2016, five will have been renovated (Parc des

Princes, Stade Vélodrome, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Stadium Toulouse and Stade Bollaert)

and four will be have been built (Allianz Riviera, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Stade des Lumières

and Stade Bordeaux Atlantique). If we refer to the study made by the French researchers, we

can be optimistic concerning the growth of match-day revenue for the clubs who will gain

from the renovations/constructions. Also, as we explained in the theoretical framework,

Germans clubs strongly benefited from the organization of the 2006 World-Cup with the

renovation and construction of new stadiums which helped them increasing their match-day

revenue. We can expect the same phenomenon to occur in France for the nine clubs which

undertook those projects.

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4.2 Interviews

4.2.1 Presentation of the respondents

Six interviews have been conducted with five different clubs and the president of the

stadium commission at the Ligue de Football Professionnelle (LFP).

The first interview was organized with Benjamin Viard, president of the stadium commission

at the LFP, the governing body that runs the major professional leagues in France. He

graduated from the stadium manager programme. Mr. Viard leads the department which

has for duty to help professional French football clubs understand new supporter’s

behaviour. Additionally, to guide the clubs in improving stadium services for fans.

As mentioned in the introduction, clubs have been carefully selected. This study’s goal is to

get a general idea of how French football clubs adapt themselves to the new ways fans are

consuming and enjoying match-day. I decided to choose clubs that have a range of sporting

ambitions and different economic power in order to highlight the diversity of the fans the

LFP has to cater for.

The first club selected for the study is AS Nancy Lorraine (ASNL) represented by the stadium

manager Mathieu Enard. The club has played in the second division (Ligue 2) since the

season 2012-2013 after spending eight consecutive seasons in Ligue 1. It is a very interesting

case because it has been one of the first French clubs to implement the use of membership’s

cards for every transaction at their stadium. When most clubs do not possess the financial

power to invest into such system, we will see how ASNL succeeded to do so and the future

projects in development to enhance the Fan Experience and offset the match-day revenue.

The second club is Stade de Reims, represented by the stadium manager Julien Hochedez.

Reims is in constant progression; the team were promoted in Ligue 1 in 2012-2013 for the

first time since thirty three years and they finished fourteen at the end of the season 2012-

2013.

The third respondent is Karim Houari from Stade Rennais Football Club. He is a member of

the stadium commission at the LFP. The club has been playing in Ligue 1 since the season

1994-1995 and have aimed for the qualification in European Cups in recent seasons.

The stadiums of those three clubs have not been selected for the 2016 UEFA European

Championship. Therefore, they will not benefit from any financial help for possible

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renovation of their stadium or the construction of a new venue.

The fourth club is Toulouse Football Club. It is the only club of the study which is not

represented by its stadium manager but by its marketing and media manager Boris

Laffargue. The club also has a long history in the first division and has finished four times in

the top-half four times in the last five seasons. The stadium will be renovated for EURO 2016

and will be equipped with a WIFI network. The club is now working on services which will

support the future connected stadium.

The last club which took part in the study are Olympique Lyonnais. Winning seven

Championship titles in a row between 2002 and 2008, the club’s ambition every season is to

finish in the top three to qualify for the Champion’s League. The stadium manager, Xavier

Pierrot, answered my questions and forecast the future Stade des Lumières which will host a

few matches of the European competition. The stadium will be fully connected and a

partnership with Cisco System has been signed to enhance the Fan Experience. We will

discuss the project of the club to copy the model of rival European clubs such as Arsenal

Football Club with the Emirates Stadium.

4.2.2 LFP

Before entering the details of the interviews with the stadium managers, it is interesting to

see how the LFP is working with the clubs on how to increase attendances and improve

match-day experience for supporters. The organisation which is responsible for overseeing,

organising and managing the top two leagues in France (Ligue 1 and Ligue 2) has set-up four

commissions organised around a special “stadium committee”. Benjamin Viard explains: “In

2012, when the LFP has elected a new president, it was established as a major priority to

work on improving the welcoming of our fans and update the services we offer to them on

match-day. We created a stadium committee consisting of twelve people (clubs, experts and

LFP officials) and four commissions (pitch quality, regulations and infrastructures, security

and stadium operation).” Each commission has a coordinator who is part of the stadium

committee. This organization has three keys points: “first, we want it to be a global action.

We have to touch the forty professional French clubs. The changes that will occur have to be

carried out in every stadium. Secondly, the client has to be at the centre of the reflection,

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whatever the subject; we have to remind ourselves who we are addressing. Thirdly, we have

a global action but it should be individualised to each club. We are aware that not every club

has the same needs in terms of infrastructures or services.”

The organisation has launched its first phase of development at the beginning of 2014. Three

studies have been executed targeting supporters in the stands, people watching matches in

hospitality areas and people living in the catchment area of the venue for each club of Ligue

1 and Ligue 2. The goal is to get a proper knowledge of what motivates every category of

fans for attending matches and what kind of services they would like to be offered on

match-day. The fans will be interviewed with the help of a questionnaire available on the

club’s websites and also on match-day by interviewers at the stadium. The questionnaire has

been written by the LFP (in collaboration with clubs) and consists of thirty questions (each

club can add up to three more if some specifics topics have not been mentioned). The league

wants to clarify the results in order to engage the second phase of development when a

choice of contractors will be conducted for installing the tools that will improve the Fan

Experience into the stadiums.

The calendar for modernising the French stadia is due for the season 2016-2017, a year after

the organization of EURO 2016. The season 2015-2016 will be dedicated to the

implementation of the tools so the European tournament will be an important turning point

for the project. Benjamin Viard considers that French football clubs are currently at the same

level as Bundesliga clubs were in 2000/2001 before organising the 2006 World-Cup. He adds:

“we fight against the idea that since we are not in Germany or United States, we cannot

have life into our stadiums or interactions between our supporters. People come to the

stadium to see a football match but not only for that.” He concludes the interviews by those

words: “We have to achieve what Germans succeeded to do: minimise the effect of the

sporting results on the supporter motivation to attend games. And for that, we need reliable

tools.”

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4.2.3 Interviews with stadium managers

The questionnaire used for the interviews was composed of five topics: the revenue

distribution of the club, the attendance rate and the determinants of attendance, the

customer relationship management (CRM) systems and the DATA collection, the Fan

Experience during match-day and lastly the connectivity of the stadium. Additional

questions were asked during the interviews depending on respondents answers.

Revenue share overview

Each stadium manager started the interview by giving an overview of the revenue share

between the three main sources; broadcasting rights, match-day and sponsoring. The club

which depends the most on TV rights revenue is Toulouse FC where the share of

broadcasting rights in the total revenue was about 78% (55% including revenue from

transfers) in 2013. As expected, the four others clubs have also a strong dependence on this

revenue: 53% for Stade Rennais FC, 57% for Olympique Lyonnais, 60% for Stade de Reims

and 65% for AS Nancy Lorraine. The share of match-day revenue fluctuates between 6% for

Toulouse FC and 13% for Stade Rennais FC to 17% for Olympique Lyonnais and 20% for Stade

de Reims.

Julien Hochedez, stadium manager of Stade de Reims, explained the pricing strategy to

obtain almost a quarter of the total revenue from match-day: “We are very concerned about

our ticketing revenue which represent almost 20% of the total revenue. If we look at the

catchment area, the club’s financial power and the spending power of the supporters, we

can be quite satisfied with the amount of our ticketing revenue. It positions us at the

seventh rank among the French clubs. We tried to create a large pricing offer to meet every

type of supporter with a median price slightly higher than the average at other clubs. We

have a real strategy to develop this source of revenue.”

When asked what will be the principal source of revenue in the next five years, every club

agrees that broadcasting revenue will still be the most important. Stade de Reims are

optimistic about the future: “We are aware that broadcasting revenue will still be at the first

spot in the near future but we are close to reaching the point when 50% of our total revenue

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will be generated by the sponsoring and match-day revenue.”

Mathieu Enard of AS Nancy Lorraine is also certain that the situation can change if clubs take

action to reduce dependence on the broadcasting revenue: “Even if the share of revenue

from TV will stay very high in the few years to come, we want to diminish this dependence

and try to develop new revenue. Our strategies aim to increase the supporter average-

spending on match-day, to encourage fans buying products at the fan shops and to

transform them into loyal supporters.” He also thinks that broadcasting rights will increase

during the next seasons and clubs should use this extra money to invest into reducing the

gap.

At Olympique Lyonnais, we are counting on the construction of the new ‘Stade des Lumières’

to bring equilibrium into the revenue: “during the next five years, the first source of revenue

will be the TV fee but with the arrival into the new stadium (2015-2016), we aim to equally

split the revenue between TV broadcasting, sponsoring and match-day as the biggest

European clubs do.”

Another point of agreement between the clubs is the potential of progression for match-day

revenue. Xavier Pierrot (Olympique Lyonnais) thinks that the margin of improvement is

enormous because French clubs are starting from the bottom if compared to other European

leagues.

Boris Laffargue (Toulouse FC) could not agree more: “the potential to increase match-day

revenue is about 1000%! Our current marketing tools are not yet fully optimised so we

should be able to strongly develop within the next few years (ticketing, merchandising and

catering).” He is looking for new solutions to develop other sources of revenue just as Julien

Hochedez (Stade de Reims).

In conclusion, Mathieu Enard (AS Nancy Lorraine) gives an overview of the financial situation

the French clubs are stuck. He explains that even if they have the desire to maximise their

match-day revenue, clubs depend on another determinant factor to be able to improve the

match-day experience: the sporting results. “The innovative ideas related to the Fan

Experience that we will implement in the future months can help us to offset those revenue.

The budget of a football club depends entirely on its sporting results. They determine the

amount of money the club will receive from the broadcasting rights, money that can be used

to improve the match-day experience. Finally, sporting results also affect the attendance

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rates which induce the match-day revenue.” Julien Hochedez concludes: “At Stade de Reims,

ticketing revenue is strongly dependent of sporting performances.”

Attendance rate and determinants

The second part of the questionnaire was addressing the subject of attendance rate and its

determinants. The stadium managers globally agree to say that the sporting factor remains

the first determinant of stadium attendance.

This is particularly true for Stade de Reims: the club’s promotion in Ligue 1 last season had a

strong impact on the attendance rate. From an average of 12,500 spectators in Ligue 2, the

club’s attendance grew to 15500 the first season in the top league. “This augmentation was

a direct consequence of our sporting achievement says Julien Hochedez. This season (2013-

2014) we are aiming to exceed last year figure despite the fact that never a club which spent

two second consecutive years in Ligue 1 after getting promoted gained spectators. Also we

progressed in terms of season ticket holders because we increased this figure too in 2013-

2014”. At Stade de Reims, the attendance is determined by three principal factors: the

opponent team, the competition and other external factors (weather, day of the match…).

Mathieu Enard from AS Nancy Lorraine agrees with this observation: “the major determinant

that drives spectators to the stadium is, before everything else, the sporting performance.

We have experienced it this season (2013-2014). After a disastrous start, the team started

winning games again and the attendance increased at the same time as the good

performances.” External factors such as weather conditions also have an impact on

supporter’s decision to come to the stadium: “the weather is not always temperate in the

North East and when winter is coming, it does affect the attendance rate.” The club created

a renovation project to be part of the EURO 2016 stadiums that will welcome the

competition. “It included the construction of a roof on the top of Marcel Picot stadium but

the club was not selected among the lucky venues” regretted Mathieu Enard. The stadium

manager mentions one last determinant that will become, according to him, unavoidable for

the clubs in the next years: “the last factor is the Fan Experience. We are doing everything

we can to enhance the match-day experience because we are certain that spectators are

expecting more from the club concerning this matter”.

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Xavier Pierrot (Olympique Lyonnais) has a very different opinion on what is the principal

factor driving attendance in his stadium: “I have the tendency to think that it is the

supporter’s stadium experience that influences its decision and by extent the quality of the

venue. But I have to add that we do not know precisely the exact reasons at the time being.”

That is why he is expecting a lot from the questionnaires addressing supporter’s motivation

to attend matches launched in collaboration with the LFP. “We have preconceived ideas on

the subject but the conclusions of the surveys will help us to see out of the woods. I am

fighting against the idea that supporters are only motivated by the sporting determinant.”

Taking the example of Bundesliga, he continues: “every stadium there is full either if the

team is first or eighteenth. The sporting determinant is very low and it is partly linked with

the quality of the venues and a stronger club culture compared to France. However, it is also

due to a more efficient marketing work with the supporters. We should not forget that,

fifteen years ago, the attendance in Bundesliga was similar to Ligue 1 today. And that it is

now the European leader. So we have a lot of work to do, we should ask ourselves the right

questions and find the appropriate answers. I really think that what will motivate in priority

French supporters to come to the stadium in the future years is linked to the Fan

Experience.”

This idea is shared by Karim Houari, stadium manager of Stade Rennais FC. “The need for Fan

Experience is going to become a major determinant for people choosing to attend football

games. “ Even he concedes that during the last five years the attendance dropped from

19000 to 25000 and that the principal reason of this reduction is due to consistently poor

performances. “I would say that, for the moment, the Fan Experience is the second

determinant of stadium attendance. At Stade Rennais FC, we have to rethink the customer

experience. Our stadium has been renovated by steps and the last one was completed in

2004. We beneficiated from the ‘novelty stadia effect’ for some time but it is not the case

anymore.” Karim Houari emphasises on the importance to minimize the sporting factor on

the supporter’s motivation to attend games. “When a supporter leaves our stadium, he

should have experienced a special moment full of surprises and memories to be

remembered. I am convinced that supporters do not only come to watch a football match

but to experience a special moment. And I say that because we have more customers than

fans coming to the stadium. When I say ‘customer’, I talk about people coming not only to

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support our team or to watch a sporting event but also to see and experience something

different from their weekly life”.

CRM systems and supporter’s knowledge

As we learned from the respondents in the previous paragraph, French clubs are struggling

to acquire customer/supporter knowledge. The third part of the questionnaire was focusing

on the CRM systems implemented by the clubs in order to gather information relative to

fans.

At AS Nancy Lorraine, the club has two CRM systems. The first is integrated to the ticketing

software: when a supporter is buying a ticket, he must input personal details. The second

system is made from all the information gathered with the loyalty program. Mathieu Enard

explains: “The venue is equipped with special membership cards allowing supporters to pay

at the stadium without money or credit card. The exploitation of this data will help us

develop marketing operations targeting fans consumption habits in the future months.

Thanks to this system, we are able to accumulate data concerning the ticketing department

or the different access points. From there, we can adapt our loyalty program: reward

supporters who come early at the stadium for example. We can also receive information

about the money transactions operated inside the venue, for example, at what time did a

supporter top up his membership card, how much did he spend and more importantly what

product did he buy.

At Stade Rennais FC, there is a CRM system connected with the access point and ticketing

software. Karim Houari gives a few details: “we have match-day reporting tools but they are

not efficient enough. I would like us to improve on this point. The knowledge we have about

our supporters is not sufficient. We want to implement revenue management but the lack of

data concerning the different members of the public attending our matches. If we want to

create differentiated offers, we have to understand and comprehend the crowd not as one

but as individuals seeking for different services. Only then will we be able to address the

right person with the right offer through the right distribution channel.” As for his colleague

from Toulouse FC, he is seeking for new solutions: “we are looking for new tools which could

help us get a better understanding of our supporters. There is a need for more innovative

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and strategic marketing actions inside the French football clubs.”

The Stade de Reims is a bit behind in terms of CRM which can be explained by the fact that

the club got promoted in the first league only two years ago. Julien Hochedez explains how

the club tries to catch up on the top French clubs: “we have a real reflection concerning the

costumer data and which CRM tools have to be implemented in order to gather information

on our fans. We are a young club in Ligue 1 so we do not have a real marketing department.

We have data bases thanks to our commercial and ticketing services, but we do not have a

global CRM strategy yet. We are currently setting up an access control system at the

stadium. We are investing €1.5 million with the city of Reims to install turnstiles at each

gate. It will help to increase the security around the stadium but also provide precious

information on fans. We are also counting on the surveys campaign created with the LFP to

augment our customer’s data.

The two clubs that will benefit from the most advanced CRM systems are Toulouse FC and

Olympique Lyonnais after the construction of their venue for the EURO 2016. Boris Laffargue

gives a few details about the current situation at Toulouse FC and the evolutions expected

with the renovation of the stadium: “we currently do not have a proper CRM system. We

have a database of contacts which does not permit us to segment our supporters into

precise commercial targets. I would say that the knowledge we have about our fans is

limited and does not entirely help us to transform them into loyal supporters. Hopefully the

renovation of the stadium will improve this point especially in terms of access control points

and money transactions.

The most advanced club as regard to CRM systems implementation is Olympique Lyonnais.

The stadium manager, Xavier Pierrot confirms that the club has a detailed knowledge of the

public frequenting the stadium. “We developed an efficient CRM tool which enables us to

map our commercial relationships with customers as soon as they log on the website or

when they go through the turnstiles. And the future stadium will beneficiate from the last

technics of CRM helping us not only to improve our customer knowledge but also expand it.”

Even if clubs have great difficulties to get a clear picture of who their supporters are, two

stadium managers give details about specific operations targeting two different types of

spectators: students and occasional buyers. At Stade de Reims, a strategy was undertaken

five years ago specifically targeting the young population and students. Julien Hochedez

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explains: “the young population is crucial. They are the supporters of tomorrow. One of the

actions we created is called ‘operation discovery’: it targets every young football player in

the area of Reims. We invite those children to five or six games during the season to make

them discover the atmosphere of a Ligue 1 match at Stade de Reims stadium.” The club is

also trying to touch people that come only once or twice during the season. “We signed

partnerships with shops of the city centre to inform the maximum of people about the next

fixtures.”

At Stade Rennais FC, the club uses its e-ticketing service to track the persons who rarely

come to the stadium: “we identify occasional buyers every match. Then we send them

regular newsletters including general information about the club and commercial offers. And

we try to target them geographically. We know that they are not interested by every game

but if we show them offers that might interest them, we are more confident to convince

them to attend certain matches. For the student population we set up operations with

student organisations and create specific offers for the ones who want to buy individual

tickets.

Pre and post-match attendance

Stadium managers were also asked about possible actions to encourage fans attending pre-

matches.

Xavier Pierrot thinks that the Fan Experience should start as soon as the supporter buys his

ticket and be extended until he goes home: “With the future ‘Stade des Lumières’, services

will be created to facilitate the arrival of fans to the venue indicating the shortest way from

their position. We are going to offer promotions before they enter the stadium. We will set

up activities before the start of the games following the model of Germans and Italian clubs.

We will prove that those types of actions can be implemented in France. Our goal will be to

encourage the supporters to come to the stadium as early as possible before the sporting

event. We think this is something possible and I am against the idea that it is only a question

of culture. We set the objective to have supporters coming between one and two hours

before the start of the game and leave between half an hour and one hour after the match.

For that we plan to become the first French stadium in terms of catering stands and

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animations.”

The desire to attract supporters before the match is also shared by Boris Laffargue from

Toulouse FC: “the club has the desire to augment the time spent by fans at the venue on

match-day. Usually supporters do not arrive more than thirty minutes before kick-off. We

encourage them to be there earlier by creating themes around the matches, but the truth is

that we tried a lot and maybe the quality of the services we offer is not high enough for the

fans to come a long time before the match starts.”

At AS Nancy Lorraine, the club is struggling to keep the supporters at the venue after the

match but its stadium manager explains that all the efforts are concentrated on the pre-

match to mobilize fans as soon as possible before kick-off: “we are aware that the earlier

fans show up at the stadium, the more they are likely to consume and increase their average

spending. We have set up a cash back system and created a ‘happy hour’ which starts when

the gates open until thirty minutes before kick-off. Supporters can benefit from 20%

discount on every single product. These actions permit us to increase our match-day

revenue (especially concerning merchandising) before the start of the matches. We also

gained on fluidity for accessing the stadium and the stands. Indeed, the higher the amount

of supporters coming to the stadium early before the match is, the easier it is for everyone

to enter the venue. We also organized the ‘Golden bar’ game (hit the cross bar from the half-

way line). In the near future we want to reward supporters who arrive early at the stadium

by giving them loyalty points on their ASNL Pass (membership card). Overall, it is difficult for

us to create major events as we see happening in United States where fans are attending

games hours before kick-off. Firstly, it is a financial matter: it is very costly to reorganize

those events in time. Secondly, it’s a managerial matter: we would have to mobilize many

employees for managing the activities and our structure is simply too small for that. Thirdly,

it is organizational: the league (LFP) obliges us to make the field available at least 90 minutes

before kick-off. We should have fans that would have to wait an hour and a half into the

stadium before the start of the match. So, even if the financial and managerial matters were

solved, we would need the LFP to review pre-match rules for being able to organize such

major events.”

If some clubs ask for the support of the league, some others do not have the adequate

venue to implement and create big events on match-day. Even if they also have for objective

to attract fans as early as possible before kick-off. At Stade de Reims, Julien Hochedez

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evokes the different stadium issues: “as every football club, we are doing everything we can

to encourage fans to come to the stadium early on match-day, but our venue is not adapted

for that. Of course, in terms of security, it would be benefic for the fluidity and flow of

supporters. Our tool is not corresponding to all the necessary criteria to organizing Ligue 1

matches. It was designed in 1998 when the club had a very small structure. The construction

was ordered in a hurry because the previous stadium was declared unfit or hosting football

games. Stadiums built at that time are now obsolete. The ‘stade Delaune’ was inaugurated in

2008, unfortunately with very few consultations of what the club needed. We are currently

thinking about installing big screens in collaboration with the city but it is very complicated

because of the necessary electrical resources and the lack of space in the stadium, but we try

to go above those issues. For example, during the Christmas period, we organised activities

around the stadium the afternoon before kick-off: there are pictures stands and we invite

children to dress up with the club’s colours.”

Karim Houari (Stade Rennais FC) has a slightly different opinion than his colleagues regarding

French supporters behaviour on pre match-day: “we are working on the timing of

supporters’ arrival at the stadium. We do not have illusions about the fact that people could

come an hour before kick-off. We think that at least 80% of our supporters arrive during the

last twenty minutes preceding the start of the match. Our idea is to offer innovative and

exclusive activities before the match in order to gain 10 or maximum 15 minutes. I do not

believe that it is in the French mentality to come early at the stadium and I do not believe it

will change a lot in the future. That is why, during the game, we have to offer activities at the

half time to minimize the sporting effect on the supporter motivation to attend games.

Stadium connectivity

The fourth part of the interview was bringing up the subject of stadium connectivity in order

to enhance the Fan Experience. Some stadium managers are persuaded that it will soon

become a requirement for clubs when other are more sceptical and want to wait for further

studies to acknowledge the usefulness of this technology with the current needs of fans.

Anyway, for most of them, it is still too expensive to implement into their stadium.

At AS Nancy Lorraine, we recognize the importance of a connected stadium and tests have

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been realised to enhance the connectivity inside the venue: “It is true that when the stadium

is full, it is really difficult to connect to internet with a smartphone or even send a text. Two

seasons ago we installed a WIFI terminal in one of our stands for a few matches. It permitted

us to set up a mobile catering service, people were ordering food and drinks from their seats

and we were delivering them their order in the stand. It was a successful experience which

has to be expanded to the entire stadium. We also conducted a few studies to assess how

much it would cost to equip the stadium with a WIFI network. Possible providers measured a

potential cost of 100 000€ to cover the entire venue. We are currently unable to invest this

amount of money in such services even if we are perfectly aware that it will soon become

essential for a football club to have a reliable WIFI network. As the stadium manager, I would

have liked the club to install it already but there is still work to do to convince the directors

of the usefulness of this service. They are administrating the club and their position is

absolutely understandable given the club’s financial and sporting situation. Also, they often

see this technical innovation only as an improvement of spectators’ comfort and not as a

tool which could offset the match-day revenue. It is hard for them to imagine what the

potential return on investment could be. So we are convinced that enhancing the Fan

Experience can attract more supporters and increase our revenue but implementing

appropriate services take time and cost money. Only the return into the first division,

leading to an increasing of the broadcasting rights revenue, can allow the club to reach those

objectives.

If the club of AS Nancy Loraine is in need of sporting results to find itself into a virtuous

circle, Toulouse FC and Olympique Lyonnais, having their venue selected as host for the next

European Cup, will benefit from the installation of WIFI networks during the

renovating/construction of their stadium.

Boris Laffargue (Toulouse FC) is sure that it will influence spectator’s choice to come the

stadium: “the quality of the Fan Experience is primordial on fans motivation to attend our

matches. Even if we try to establish a contact with them before their arrival at the venue, I

do not think this type of initiative will really contribute to encourage them to turn up even if

it is an excellent idea to assist the fans before they reach the stadium gates. What the

supporters want is being able to communicate when they are at their seat and use services

to enhance their match-day experience. We want to be able to offer those services and

hopefully it will be the case with the renovation of the stadium. The WIFI will allow the

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creation of apps for smartphones and other types of activities with the goal of improve the

Fan Experience.”

At Olympique Lyonnais, the project of connected stadium is the most advanced in France.

The club signed a partnership with Cisco System and Orange to install a WIFI network in the

future ‘Stade des Lumières’. Xavier Pierrot thinks that this collaboration will reinforce the

relation between the club and the supporters: “fans will be able to communicate in the

stadium thanks to the big screens and with the intermediary of social networks, but we have

to work on the basics as well as on the technology used. We are currently carrying out

discussions with Cisco System in order to select what type of content we may make available

to the supporters. We are very attentive to their experience with the Dallas Cowboys in the

United States. They helped the club to implement great services which undoubtedly enhance

the Fan Experience there. The services that could be offered to the supporters in our future

venue are for example the choice of camera to watch a replay, real-time statistics or

gaming.”

At Stade Rennais FC, Karim Houari defends the idea that the public is not mature yet for

technologies such as NFC ticketing despite the turnstiles being compatible, but the club has a

real desire to ‘put digital in the centre of the club global strategy’. “We want to guide the fan

through his match-day journey and reinforce his attachment to the club. That is why we

engaged discussions with potential WIFI network providers. At the moment we have found

two companies with very different offers. One of them seems to correspond to our needs.

The major issue is the lack of knowledge concerning potential return on investment. When

we evoke those subjects, the cost-effectiveness is hard to measure because we are only at

the early stages of its implementation in the world of football. And at the club, we have

decided that none investments would be done if its cost-effectiveness was not possible in a

period of maximum four years. But I am confident that, five years from now, there will be a

WIFI network at ‘Stade de la Route de Lorient’.

At Stade de Reims, Julien Hochedez explains his view on this matter: “I do not have a clear

opinion on the concepts of Fan Engagement and Fan Experience applied to the French

football clubs. I am listening and watching what starts to be implemented. Do supporters

want to see more than a football match when coming to the stadium? I have no certainty

about it yet. I have reservations concerning French culture. I think that people who visit

‘Stade Delaune’ this season come mostly for the sporting performance. It does not mean

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that we should draw precocious conclusions from it. Before bringing the subject of Fan

Experience, fans should be able to use their phone in the stadium, just for calling or texting.

Phone network is almost non-existent in the French sporting venues. We also have this

problem in Reims so we asked the network providers help us: from the three

telecommunication providers, only one answered positively to our request and is currently

looking for a solution to these connectivity problems… Even the ‘Stade de France’ is

struggling with the same issue so it is not surprising that we are in this situation. Here, at

Stade de Reims, we have not yet started looking for WIFI solutions. As we were only

promoted two seasons ago, further investments are necessary to catch up on other Ligue 1

clubs. We are fully aware of the global concerns about stadium interactivity and data

collection in French football but we cannot work on it in the nearest future.”

Smartphone applications

The implementation of services linked with a WIFI network often requires the creation of a

smartphone application. Three of the five clubs have already one and the two other will

launch their application in the coming months. Stadium managers have been asked about

the utility of this product in their digital strategy and how it was serving the Fan Experience.

At Toulouse FC, supporters can interact with each other’s on match-day using the app: they

can take pictures and tag themselves before sending it on Twitter or Facebook. Fans can also

type messages which are shown on the big screen during the match. It encourages

supporters’ interaction. The club plans to develop it to enhance the Fan Experience in the

next months but the first step is to install the WIFI network when the stadium will be

renovated.

Olympique Lyonnais is in a similar situation. The club created a smartphone application a

few years ago but it is only a mobile version of the website. There is a news feed and a few

facts about the team but everything stays very general: “Yes, we can agree that Olympique

Lyonnais, as most French clubs, created an app because we had to but this product does not

offer any specific content to the supporters. With the new stadium, we are working on

launching an app which will regroup all the services we will offer (replays, statistics, food

ordering…). And this tool will be the activator of the Fan Experience, not only during the

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ninety minutes of the match but as soon as the supporter leaves home on match-day. For

example the application will suggest the fan to book a parking spot on park and ride facilities

or it will show him the optimum road to reach the venue. We will take a big step ahead in

terms of Fan Engagement and Fan Experience.”

As we have understood with respondents answers, in certain situation, the financial factor is

blocking the club from enhancing the Fan Experience. And this is the case with AS Nancy

Lorraine: “we have a smartphone application but unfortunately this app has been created to

fill an empty space. We are not offering any exclusive content on it: there are the club’s

news, pictures, games for children and an access to the online shop. Of course, if the

application was paired with a WIFI network, it will offer us enormous opportunities for

improving the Fan Experience and for collecting supporters’ DATA. But it is a very heavy

investment for a club like ours.”

The two other clubs do not own a smartphone application yet but it will soon be available as

explains Karim Houari for Stade Rennais FC: “the project of creating an app is in progress and

should come to a successful conclusion before the start of next season. We included a club

news feed, the possibility to receive the team’ starting lineup just before kick-off. When the

stadium will be fully connected, we will improve the app with seat geographical positioning

and other services enhancing the supporter’s match-day experience. At Stade de Reims, the

club decided to select one company for redesigning the website and creating the app. But

Julien Hochedez finds it difficult to monetize the services offered with this product: “we have

tried to monetize the WebTV, bringing a quality and exclusive content to the supporters but

the revenue were covering less than 10% of the total costs. I think that monetizing exclusive

content on this future app will not work with our supporters.”

The financial cost added to the difficulty to forecast the return on investment prevents the

weakest clubs from investing in modernizing their venue. I asked Mathieu Enard from AS

Nancy Lorraine to explain to me what has been implemented at their stadium in terms of

payments with membership cards and how it was affecting the match-day revenue. “This

investment has been costly but realized in progressive steps. In 2005, taking the example of

some clubs in Bundesliga, we decided to stop having money transactions inside the stadium.

We created a special Pass ASNL which could be used to buy food and drink in the different

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catering stands and was rechargeable inside the venue. It was the first of its kind in France.

We had an immediate return on investment which encourages us to take an extra step. In

2008, we brought a new functionality to the Pass ASNL, supporters being able to download

their e-ticket on it from the online ticket service and even from the stadium ticket office. The

Pass ASNL has other advantages: fans can collect reward points and be rewarded for their

loyalty. We created a loyalty scheme grouping brand partners and offering discounts to

supporters on multiple products. Also, thanks to the Pass ASNL, the access to catering stands

has been facilitated and supporters’ waiting time has been reduced. Season ticket holders

can renew their subscription on the website every season by plugging their Pass ASNL to

their computer. Today we have about 40 000 Pass ASNL activated. In terms of return on

investment, there is a security deposit of 3€ per Pass ASNL. We also achieved economies of

scales thanks to the numerous number of membership cards we ordered to the contractor.

Finally the implementation of the Pass greatly contributed to increase supporter average

spending and so boosted our match-day revenue. Concerning the reaction of the fans, it was

very positive. Of course there are some supporters who do not understand how the product

works or why they should be using it. Once we explained it to them and game more

information about the product, they understood the concept very easily.

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5. Analysis

5.1 Revenue share overview

The revenue share overview given by the stadium managers reflects the current financial

situation in French football. The clubs are dependent on TV broadcasting rights revenue.

They represent between 53 and 65% of the total revenue for the five respondents for the

season 2012-2013. A year before the average of revenue originated from the broadcasting

revenue in Ligue 1 equalled 58%. It is interesting to note that those figures are similar and

that the dependence does not seem to be reduced. The same goes for the match-day

revenue which were about 12% of the total revenue in 2011-2012 and were between 6 and

20% last year for the five clubs of the study.

There is an obvious correlation between the club’s sporting results and their dependence to

the broadcasting rights as the main source of revenue. The clubs that are the most

dependent are Stade de Reims who are a new club in the first league with only two seasons

in Ligue 1 and AS Nancy Lorraine which is currently in the second league after getting

relegated in 2013. On the contrary, Toulouse FC, Stade Rennais or Olympique Lyonnais are

the least dependent of the respondents but also the clubs with the longest presence in Ligue

1. In order to stabilize their financial model and offset new revenue, clubs need constant

sporting results at the top level.

As Mathieu Enard (AS Nancy Lorraine) remarked, French football clubs have to use the

broadcasting rights revenue to invest into other areas for creating new revenue. Without

sporting performances, the clubs cannot engage in this process. We observe that stadium

managers are aware of the negativity of this dependence. They are developing strategies to

maximise the match-day revenue: for example at Stade de Reims where they emphases on

pricing ticket management.

The different respondents have often mentioned the economic situation in other European

leagues, often taking as an example the Bundesliga where the clubs have a more sustainable

financial model. When being interrogated on the evolution of their club revenue repartition,

stadium managers are rather pessimistic on the short term. They do not doubt that the

match-day revenue will stay the principal source in the next five years but all of them aim for

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a brighter future. Giving the current dependence, it will be a long process before they can

reverse the situation. In order to do so, they have set to themselves a few objectives which

should permit to change the actual state: augment the supporter’s average spending on

match-day (AS Nancy Lorraine), obtain half of their revenue with match-day and sponsoring

revenue only (Stade de Reims), transform the crowd into club’s advocates or to have an

equal repartition of the revenue sources thanks to a new stadium (Olympique Lyonnais).

Those wishes are in concordance with the LFP project to improve the stadiums atmosphere

and to help the clubs generating new revenue. Ultimately, we can be confident that the

stadium managers have fully evaluated the current economic situation and that they are

aware of the potential gains concerning match-day revenue. They recognize that those

revenue have always been under-exploited in France and that clubs never really focused on

maximizing them because it was requiring heavy investments and they do not have the right

tools or solutions to do so.

To summarise, the respondents are acknowledging the fact that French football clubs

revenue strongly depend on broadcasting rights revenue. And they do think that it will take

time before major improvements can be noticed in the reduction of this dependence. In fact,

even if the clubs manage to increase their match-day revenue in the future months, we can

wonder if it will have any impact on the revenue stream because of the future renegotiation

of the broadcasting rights contracts in Ligue 1. We can objectively imagine that the

attractiveness of the league has grown since the last time contracts have been signed in

2011 (for the period 2012-2016). This being due to the fact that Paris Saint Germain and AS

Monaco have recruited some of the world best football players. So we will probably assist

this year to an increase of the fee distributed to the clubs by the French League (LFP). But as

Mathieu Enard (AS Nancy Lorraine) explained, the clubs which will beneficiate from this gain

should invest the extra money in solutions for maximizing the match-day revenue.

5.2 Attendance rate and determinants

An important part of the interviews was focusing on the matter of stadium attendance. It is

crucial for the clubs to have a precise knowledge of two information: who are the different

categories of supporters that come to the stadium on match-day and what are their

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motivations and expectations toward this action. The respondents mostly answered these

questions based on their own opinion and experience but their reflections were rarely

related to precise figures or studies because of the lack of information they have on their

supporters. That is why they have high expectations concerning the result of the study

implemented by LFP. They globally agree that the sporting factor is the principal

determinant of stadium attendance. This is well highlighted by the stadium managers of

Stade de Reims and AS Nancy Lorraine. When the first club gained in attendance after its

promotion to the first league, the attendance rate of the second was impacted with the

relegation into the lower league followed by bad sporting performances at the beginning of

this season. External factors such as the weather conditions also impact fan’s decision to go

to the stadium.

Even if the sporting factor remains the most important in the decision process for attending

matches, some of the stadium managers are persuaded that the Fan Experience will play a

much bigger role in the future. They are noticing a growing interest for the Fan Experience

among the supporters. But they have different approaches: at Olympique Lyonnais, we think

that the Fan Experience is the principal influencer of stadium attendance. Xavier Pierrot,

especially, is a true advocate of the Fan Experience, a concept that he will fully make use of

in the future ‘Stade des Lumières’ currently under construction. He draws a parallel with

Germany where stadiums are full every weekend. For him, this is due to the implementation

of a global strategy undertaken by the clubs in order to enhance the supporter’s match-day

experience. The second category of stadium managers believes that the Fan Experience is a

growing determinant of people’s motivation to attend football games.

But the sporting factor is still the main reason why fans come to the venue. At Stade Rennais

for example, we are aware that most of the public is coming to the stadium not only to

support the home team but also to attend a special event. And one of the main objectives of

the stadium manager in the future is to minimize the sporting factor effect on the

supporter’s motivation to attend matches. Finally the last category of stadium managers is

sceptical concerning the fact that supporters are currently motivated by the Fan Experience

when going to the stadium. The lack of supporters’ knowledge results in making those three

types of judgments based more on personal feeling than on actual scientific studies.

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5.3 CRM systems and supporter’s knowledge

From the respondents’ interviews, it has been pointed out that they were unable to fully

understand their public, the principal reason being the absence of a proper system to gather

specific information on the different categories of fans. As written in the Theoretical

Framework, in order to create a successful CRM strategy, companies need three keys

elements which cannot totally be reunited by the French football clubs: the first one is

customer retention which can be resumed as the actions undertaken by the company to

reduce customer defection, the second element is the development of potential customers

which include turning a casual customer into a loyal customer and ultimately into a brand

advocate and the third essential element for performing a successful CRM strategy is the

selections of customers also called segmentation. It is crucial to target customers with the

most potential and avoid the ones that are the most distant from the core target.

When going through the stadium managers answers, we understand that at least four of the

five clubs are struggling with those three elements. They have been carrying out different

strategies to get a better understanding of their fans, to transform them into hardcore

supporters or simply to recruit new ones but none of the clubs have yet decided to invest

into powerful tools in order to fully control them (AS Nancy Lorraine and Olympique

Lyonnais at a greater degree will soon beneficiate from such tools). Data and supporter’s

knowledge are the keys of the club’s revenue diversification and match-day revenue

maximization in the future. When French clubs will have at their disposal all the data

necessary to target specific groups of supporters, they will be able to offset not only their

match-day revenue (catering, merchandising…) but also their ticketing revenue because they

will understand why certain categories of supporters buy certain tickets and not others.

Most stadium managers are aware of the necessity to improve their customer knowledge

but somehow the clubs are not investing for solving this problem because the solutions

offered are not exhaustive and very costly. How clubs can overstep these financial issues?

The organization of a major international competition is one of the solutions. The EURO

2016 in France which will permit the renovation of Toulouse FC stadium and the

construction of a new stadium for Olympique Lyonnais will help these clubs to improve their

CRM system and hopefully their customer knowledge. Another issue, highlighted by Mathieu

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Enard (AS Nancy Lorraine) is the difficulty to convince the top directors of the importance to

concentrate investments in this sector. This rejection has also for consequence to damage

the CRM strategy which needs a perfect collaboration and commitment between all

management levels. Other clubs such as Stade de Reims have focused their investments into

other areas, trying to make up for lost time because suffering from a lack of top

infrastructures (training facilities, administration offices).

Clubs are trying to exceed these numerous data issues by offering special deals targeting

strategic supporter’s categories such as students and occasional buyers. Also an emphasis is

put on the young population which represents the supporters of tomorrow and it is crucial

of the clubs to attract them as early as possible so they get attached to the club. And then

later become hardcore fans that will drag their friends and family into the stadium. Despite

these actions, clubs are craving for new solutions and products that could help them to

gather a more precise knowledge of their fans. Each stadium manager explained it explicitly

during his interview. The role of the French professional league (LFP) is becoming essential

to bring a way out to the clubs. The stadium strategic committee and the development

phases launched at the beginning of 2014 should assist the clubs in this sense. A strong

collaboration between the clubs and the league will undoubtedly result in a more efficient

work to resolve these issues.

5.4 Pre and post-match attendance

Maximizing the time of supporters’ presence on match-day potentially increase the amount

money they are likely to spend during the event. As for the motivation of supporters to

attend matches, there are different points of views among the stadium managers on this

subject. Certain believe that actions should be undertaken to encourage supporters to come

up to an hour before the match. And they defend the idea that fans, even if they are not

used to come early before kick-off or leave late after the end of the game, can be educated.

At Olympique Lyonnais, the fan retention on match-day will be one of the main objectives to

reach according to Xavier Pierrot. Other stadium managers think that there is room for

improvement and targeted actions can motivate fans for showing up some extra minutes

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before usual time but it would be vain to try to hold them back after the match. Finally a

third category doubts that French fans behaviours can be changed due to their culture and

habits and it would be very difficult to motivate them for pre and post-match attendance.

The debate between optimistic and pessimistic managers is open to discussion. And once

again, the surveys will offer clear answers to this topic and permit to the clubs to discover if

there is a possibility to exploit this crucial time before and after the match. They certainly all

want to do so but some are not totally convinced that French supporters are open to these

changes. Plus, the interviewees remind us all the issues the clubs would have to face if they

wanted to welcome the fans earlier on match-day: financial, managerial and organizational

problems would occur. Indeed, they are clubs which do not have the adequate

infrastructures to organize pre and post-match events such as Stade de Reims. The question

of stadium compatibility is a major issue for French clubs. Most of the venues being built

before 2000, very few of them would be able to welcome pre-match activities. Also giving

the financial situation, it is understandable that clubs are struggling to invest into these

areas.

To resume, the stadium managers are showing a real concern for pre and post match-day

and how to encourage supporters to arrive earlier at the stadium. They are persuaded that it

could offset the match-day revenue of their club and contribute to improve the Fan

Experience quality. But they are divided on the feasibility of the measure due to the

potential reluctance of the French public and also due to financial and infrastructural issues.

5.5 Stadium connectivity

Connecting the stadium will soon become a necessary step in order to enhance the Fan

Experience at the venue. As it has been noticed in the previous part of the analysis, stadium

managers globally agree that the factors which motivate supporters for attending a football

match are changing. They also agree that clubs should create new services and activities in

order to improve the match-day events. Undoubtedly the implementation of an efficient

WIFI system would ameliorate the communication between supporters inside the stadium

but also serve as a support for the exclusive services designed by the clubs. Among the

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stadium managers, we notice, again, a division about the necessity to have a connected

stadium in the nearest future. The principal reason of this partition is the fact that clubs do

not possess enough supporters’ knowledge to understand what their expectations are in

term of stadium connectivity.

At Stade de Reims, we still have interrogations about the importance of connectivity as a

major determinant of supporter satisfaction. And if the relation was established thanks to

the survey campaign of the LFP, Julien Hochedez would prefer to favor a dialogue with

telecommunication providers for fixing this issue of connectivity instead of having to invest

in a WIFI network, simply because the club cannot afford it for the moment. Another reason

why French clubs hesitate to invest into connecting systems is the difficulty to measure their

cost-effectiveness. Very few football clubs have installed WIFI networks in Europe and the

return on investment is not yet known. If we pair this concern of cost effectiveness with the

concern of lack of knowledge concerning supporters’ expectation, we understand the clubs’

waiting position. At Stade Rennais FC, the stadium manager is confident that a WIFI network

will be installed in the stadium but not before 5 years from now.

Some stadium managers think that connecting their venue is an absolute requirement. At

Olympique Lyonnais and at As Nancy Lorraine, we have true advocate of connected

stadiums. Mathieu Enard already tested WIFI systems in one of the stands of Marcel Picot

stadium (As Nancy Lorraine) which turned out to be a successful experiment. The public

adaptability to the technology has not been an issue, which constitute a proof that French

supporters are willing to use these services if we offer it to them. He also assessed the price

of a WIFI implementation in the entire stadium as most of the stadium managers.

Unfortunately the club felt into relegation last season which had for effect to briefly suspend

this type of initiatives. As for Xavier Pierrot, he is going to be the first French stadium

manager of a fully connected stadium in 2015. The partnership signed with Cisco will help

the club to become one of the most advanced stadiums in Europe in terms of possible

interactions between supporters and secondary services available for fans. We can imagine

that the others French clubs will keep a close look on match-day attendance and revenue

figures of the club. And no doubt that if the model proofs to be successful, it will be shown

as an example of how a football club can increase both its attendance and revenue.

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5.6 Smartphone applications

The stadium managers were asked about their digital strategy and more precisely about the

existence of a smartphone application dedicated to the supporters. Quite surprisingly, not

every club has created such product. From the five respondents, only three clubs own one

and the two other clubs are currently in the phase of development. The managers were

interrogated on the utility of this app for their fans at the stadium.

When it comes to the use of this application to enhance the Fan Experience or incite the

supporters to share their emotions during the matches, the results are poor. Only the

Toulouse FC offers the possibility of interaction with the integration of social networks

(Facebook, Twitter). Also fans can encourage their team by posting messages through the

app which will be shown on the big screens during the match. Boris Laffargue explained that

the club is for ambition to develop the product in accordance with the implementation of

the WIFI network when the stadium will be renovated. Olympique Lyonnais is following the

same path with the desire to make use of this product as a platform for the future services

that will be offered to the supporters in the ‘Stade des Lumières’. These two clubs have the

most advances projects in terms of using the app for enhancing the match-day experience.

We observe that stadium managers take as a prerequisite the importance of having a well-

connected stadium before they can improve their smartphone application. As Nancy Loraine

is the third respondent which owes an app. As for the two previous clubs, the stadium

manager admitted that the product has been created not to provide exclusive contents to

the fans but simply because it was a necessity for them to be present on this market.

Through the interviews, we understand that the clubs have not decided to use this tool as a

new way to monetize services and improve fan loyalty. The arguments used against this are

the investment costs when building the application and the fact that none venues are fully

connected yet. Concerning the two other respondents, it does seem as the products which

are currently being designed will not serve the Fan Experience either. At least this is the case

for Stade de Reims where monetized services have been implemented already, especially

about the web TV, but have not been found successful with the supporters. Therefore, the

club has decided to use the product mainly as a relay for the website with the same type of

information between the two media. Finally the last respondent, Stade Rennais FC, has

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opted for a basic app in the first months. Then, gradually, following the stadium connectivity

improvement, the stadium manager wants to upgrade the product with new services such as

geolocation seating.

The interviewees make us understand the crucial importance of equipping the French clubs

of WIFI networks or at least improving the connectivity of the venues in order for them to

invest into Fan Experience tools. But as we discussed before, clubs are confronted with the

cost of such operation and all the interrogations concerning the potential return on

investment highlighted in the previous paragraph (‘5.6 stadium connectivity’). Also, we can

regret that French clubs are seeing the smartphone app only as an extension of their website

but not as an additional platform which could be used complementary to the internet media.

5.7 Pass ASNL

I decided to dedicate a paragraph to the innovations undertaken by As Nancy Lorraine within

the last years. I think the club is a true example for the rest of the French football club in

terms of investments for improving the Fan Experience. The annual club’s budget has never

been higher than €43 million since the season 2007-2008 placing the club always after the

tenth position every year. Also the club has finished only once in the first ten of Ligue 1

during that period (2008-2009).

Despite average results and budget, the club managed to invest heavily into tools which

could enable it to improve the match-day experience and gather precise customer data. The

club has enhanced its FRM system thanks to those actions. But facing the same financial

issues as the other respondents described in the interviews, we can wonder how the club

succeeded.

Mathieu Enard explained that the initial idea was to take example on the innovative ideas

carried out in England and Germany. Being open to changes and continuing assessing what is

done outside of the home championship is one of the factors of success.

Also the stadium manager said that the project was strongly supported by the managing

directors. As written in the theoretical framework, the implementation of a CRM strategy

has to be acknowledged and advocated by the top managers in the company to avoid

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failure. And most of the interviewee told us their difficulties to convince the top directors of

the importance of such investments. An improvement in the CRM systems will require a

more important awareness of the top directors concerning those subjects.

Lastly, the employee of AS Nancy Lorraine demonstrated that the return on investment was

fast and concrete and that supporters were satisfied with the new organisation.

By combining an augmentation of revenue and offering more comfort to the supporters, we

are able to conclude that the investments of AS Nancy Lorraine have been successful. This

example brings positive answers to most of the interrogations of the stadiums managers: yes

this is very costly to invest into an efficient CRM system, yes it cannot be completed without

the support of the top directors, yes the supporters are willing to adapt to a new

organisation and finally yes the return on investment is real.

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6. Conclusions

The conclusion chapter’s purpose it to answer the research questions stated in the

introduction chapter. The two sub-questions will be answered first and then used to provide

the answer to the main research question.

The interviews conducted with the five stadium managers, the president of the LFP’s

stadium committee and the Fan Engagement experts will serve as foundation for the results

presented in the conclusion. Even though the findings are based on five clubs I believe that

parts of the results might be applicable to other French football clubs as well.

What are the critical success factors for a successful FRM implementation in professional

French football?

If French clubs aim to implement a successful Football Relationship Management strategy,

critical factors of Customer Relationship Management have to be fulfilled. As stated in the

theoretical framework, the execution of a successful CRM strategy can only be achieved

when the company entirely focuses on the customer and rethink its customer approach

strategy. From what we have learned from the different interviews, it does seem as clubs

have started to realize that the relation they have toward their supporters should be

improved. Some stadium managers clearly explained that their club is not doing enough in

that sense and they also highlighted that they are willing to change the situation. It does

appear as if clubs finally see the importance of creating a stronger bond between them and

the fans in order to minimize the impact of the sporting result on the match attendance rate.

To achieve that, clubs have to develop their ability to master the three keys elements of a

good CRM strategy: the customer retention, the customer development and the customer

segmentation. Then, they will be able to keep their fans and transform them into advocates

of the club, recruit new fans and address the right message to the right target.

Unfortunately, and this is one of the main lessons to be learned from the interviews, French

clubs have very weak and un-adapted CRM systems. It is a major handicap for them as they

do not have at their disposal the most advanced tools to understand precisely who their fans

are and what their expectations are concerning various topics. Giving the considerable

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heterogeneity of the customer base in football, segmentation is necessary to structure FRM

models. But because of this backwardness concerning the CRM systems, it is almost

impossible for them to apply targeted marketing strategies which could potentially aim

specific types of fans. The crucial improvement of the CRM tools is therefore a prerequisite

to any amelioration in terms customer knowledge and by extend of improvement of match-

day attendance and match-day revenue. These objectives cannot be completed without a

total commitment of the clubs employees: from the board of executives to the stadium

manager, everyone must be convinced of the necessity to dedicate some of the financial and

human capacity of the club to the achievement of this task. Finally, as it has been

demonstrated along this thesis, the augmentation of the match-day revenue cannot be

achieved without an augmentation of customer knowledge. Therefore, understanding

supporters’ behaviour during match-day has to become a major objective in the nearest

future for French clubs.

The successful implementation of a Football Relationship Strategy inside the French clubs

will also depend on their capacity to innovate and invest into renovating their venue by

bringing the most advanced products and CRM software.

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What type of in stadia investments have to be decided to successfully undertake this

strategy?

As stated in the paragraph above, Fan Engagement expects are convinced that applying an

effective FRM strategy does not only depends on the installation of technological tools in the

stadiums. Nevertheless, we cannot underestimate the importance of those products in the

success of FRM. For many reasons, the concept of stadium 2.0 will become the model to

follow in the future years. The advantages of a connected venue will beneficiate not only to

the club but also to the supporters. From the football club perspective, bringing innovative

tools inside the stadium will serve one major purpose: the augmentation of match-day

revenue. Thanks to better targeted commercial offers at the venue, clubs will augment their

merchandising and catering revenue. Also, thanks to an enhanced experience, ticketing

revenue will be maximized as supporters will be more motivated to come to the stadium to

live a special moment. Finally, the data gathered in the stadium 2.0 will permit a much

better catchment of customer knowledge which will be crucial for offsetting the match-day

revenue.

Concerning the French club, the first stadia investments to be realised should concern the

CRM software and the in-stadium locations where customer knowledge can be obtain.

From what we have concluded after the interviews, French football clubs do not possess

efficient CRM software. This point should be resolved in the nearest future with the help of

the ‘Ligue Professionelle de Football’. As Benjamin Viard explained, the league has launched

a consultation in order to list the potential contractors which could work with the clubs on

the matters of Fan Experience and also CRM systems. Moreover, there is a need from clubs

to be advised by experts on this subject. The clubs are only starting to implement such

complex systems so a rapprochement with experienced companies – if not French,

international ones – should be encouraged. Furthermore, many stadium managers have

highlighted their desire to be put in touch with such organizations to help them improving

their CRM systems. The league appears to be the right intermediary in this situation.

Another priority is the renovation of the entrance points of the stadiums. Those locations

are the first place on match-day where supporter’s data can be acquired. Some of the

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stadiums are not yet equipped with turnstiles for example. Therefore, it becomes very

difficult for the clubs to know exactly how many people are attending the match. Moreover,

they do not have the possibility to gather information on the type of supporters entering the

stadium or at what time the fans are arriving at the venue. All those crucial information

could be used on only to get a better understanding of the public but also to create loyalty

programs to encourage the fans to show up earlier at the venue. There is also room for

improvement concerning the catering and merchandising areas. The example of AS Nancy

Lorraine, with the Pass ANSL, shows that the decision to remove monetary transactions from

the stadium leads to a better control of the customer DATA with the use of dedicated

membership cards. It certainly took a few years for the club to realize the necessary

investments but it will soon beneficiate from an efficient CRM system.

French clubs have to primarily work on structural stadium renovations before moving to the

next step and installing technological innovations. If the venues are in capacity to welcome

supporters in the best conditions, there is not point to move forward in terms of

connectivity. Stadium managers acknowledged it; one of the major priorities of stadia

renovations has to be directed toward the hospitality areas in order to improve the comfort

of the supporter - and not only the VIP supporter- . The importance of efficient basic services

-in areas such as the catering zones or the restroom zones- in the motivation of supporters

to attend live matches should not be underestimated. Therefore, improving the welcoming

conditions is more than necessary in France and it will only be achieved when clubs

recognize it as one of their important weaknesses. Only then, they will be in capacity to

introduce more advances tools serving the Fan Experience by engaging supporters inside the

venue.

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How French clubs can increase their match-day revenue thought implementation of Fan

Relationship Management?

I have been interested in the subject for more than a year now and I have to admit that I was

positively surprised to witness that most of the stadium managers believe in the concepts of

Fan Engagement and Fan Experience to serve the augmentation of match-day revenue.

Moreover they are convinced that French supporters are sensitive, not only to the 90 minute

of sport performance but also to the overall match-day experience in their decision to come

or not to the stadium. This is a big step forward which will brings us closer to an enhanced

match-day experience in the French stadiums. Although, during the interviews, the issue of

financial instability has often been used to explain the lack of investments for improving the

match-day experience, Fan Engagement expert Mark Bradley reminded us that improving

the relation with fans was not just about costly investments on venue renovation. Clubs have

to insist on the creation of Fan Value because it serves the successful implementation of

Football Relationship Management. It is absolutely necessity for football clubs to deliver

value to the supporters in order to increase their emotional loyalty. To improve their match-

day revenue, clubs cannot simply sell products or services to the fans. They have to make

them realized that they are being understood and that the club is providing solutions

matching their needs.

I am convinced that the concepts of Fan Engagement, Fan Experience and Fan Value will

become topics of major concern for football clubs in the next years. Clubs aiming to

minimise the effect of sporting results on the supporter motivation to attend games will

undoubtedly use them in their CRM strategy.

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Appendix

i. Table Revenues Distribution Ligue 1 (2011/2012)

Club Total Revenues

Broadcasting Rights

Sponsorship deals/Advertising

Matchdays revenues

Others incomes

A.C AJACCIO 20 809 79% (16394) 7% (1417) 4% (836) 10% (2161) A.J AUXERRE 25652 71% (18087) 14% (3562) 7% (1857) 8% (2146)

F.C Gir. Bordeaux 65114 57% (37059) 16% (10667) 9% (5983) 18% (11406) Stade brestois 29 30103 57% (17053) 24% (7513) 13% (3792) 6% (1745)

Stade malherbe CAEN 36991 42% (15340) 16% (5883) 13% (4919) 29% (3287)

DIJON FOOTBALL 23799 60% (14256) 20% (4652) 10% (2498) 10% (2393) EVIAN THONON GAILLARD FC 35120 58% (20432) 23% (7908) 11% (3736) 8% (3044)

LOSC Lille Métropole 80125 73% (58233) 13% (10511) 8% (6400) 6% (4981) F.C Lorient 29678 66% (19606) 17% (29678) 9% (2671) 8% (2437)

Olympique de Marseille 137272 51% (70587) 22% (29817) 13% (18045) 14% (18778) Montpellier Hérault S.C. 54827 66% (36310) 13% (7013) 8% (4228) 13% (7277)

A.S Nancy Lorraine 30375 66% (20109) 16% (4825) 9% (2663) 9% (2777)

O.G.C Nice 28168 69% (19564) 13% (3691) 7% (1865) 11% (3052) Paris Saint-Germain 222387 21% (47013) 11% (24597) 11% (25352) 56% (125425)

Stade Rennais F.C. 54428 63% (34159) 19% (10179) 13% (6918) 5% (3172) A.S Saint Etienne 44392 68% (30074) 15% (6849) 11% (4902) 6% (2567)

F.C. SOCHAUX-MONTBÉLIARD 32928 58% (19009) 23% (7630) 23% (7630) 8% (2789)

TOULOUSE F.C. 40621 68% (27427) 15% (6269) 6% (2484) 11% (4441) VALENCIENNES F.C. 33342 61% (20211) 21% (7020) 12% (4003) 6% (2109)

Olympique Lyonnais NC NC NC NC NC Total Ligue 1 1 026 131

61% 17% 10% 13%