Football and La Liga gain followers in India

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, April 10: Interest in football and the number of fans following the sport are registering significant growth in China, India and Indonesia, with further evidence of consolidation of La Liga's brand image, according to a latest study, done by market research firm GfK.

The research study was conducted in 10 countries, including China, India and Indonesia - all markets of strategic relevance for the expansion of football and the Spanish competition.

The project in Asia consisted of 5,000 online interviews, lasting 15 minutes each, with internet users between 16 and 69 years of age, who were representative of the population of internet users in each country, during November 2017 and November 2018.

Over half of respondents in the three countries stated that they are "very interested" in football. The level of interest has grown by 7 percentage points in the period analysed, rising from 45% to 52%.

Particularly notable was the growth in Indonesia, with an increase of over nine percentage points to reach 59%, as well as in China, where the seven-percentage-point increase situates it at 43%.

Although more moderate in India, interest also rose by four percentage points to 53%.

Furthermore, football retains the top positions in the rankings of favourite sports among the respondents most interested in sport.

In China it was first-placed alongside basketball, in Indonesia it occupied first place, and in India it was the second-favourite sport behind cricket.

"In our experience with regard to brand tracking studies, growth in brand awareness of one percentage point in one year is a very good figure. The result obtained by LaLiga, with a rise of four percentage points in a single year, is extraordinary," said GfK's Brand and Customer Experience Director Javier Gomez.

(Source: MSL Media)