Over 3.4m Brits will avoid friends, family during the World Cup to dodge hearing the score

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For those not fortunate enough to catch every minute of the World Cup live, this time every four years brings a challenge of its own to avoid seeing results.

Yahoo Sport research, powered by YouGov, has revealed some very interesting statistics on how seriously the British public take avoiding results to preserve the thrill of the beautiful game whichever way they can.

Over 3.4million* of the British population will avoid friends and family this summer to stop hearing results from the World Cup, according to new data from Yahoo Sport, proving that many still wish to enjoy the World Cup whether it’s live or not.

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The results show how seriously the football faithful in Britain takes football and the lengths they will go to trying to avoid spoiling their enjoyment of the matches.

Not only will fans dodge seeing friends and family (22%) in fear of spoilers, but they will also stay well away from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites (61%), turn off the TV (42%) and radio (38%),
avoid newspapers (31%) and not check Whatsapp or other chat and text services (25%).

Football fans are also conscious that despite their best efforts, life will get in the way of watching Gareth Southgate’s men playing live. 63% said they were worried that work would be the biggest obstacle, with family commitments (35%) cited as the second biggest difficulty. Other hurdles include regular clubs and social activities (16%), being away on holiday (15%) and partners or family complaining at them (12%).

However, 9% of dedicated fans said that nothing will get in the way of them watching the matches they want to watch.

The survey also looked at the feelings of other football mad nations and found that Spain had an even higher tendency to avoid friends and family (36%). Likewise France (32%), Italy (31%), Brazil (29%) and Germany (26%) are also happy to steer clear of loved ones to avoid hearing the score.

Raj Mannick, Head of Sport at Yahoo Sport said, “The World Cup will once again captivate the nation this summer with millions tuning in to watch the best footballing nations go head to head. However, according to our research not everyone will be able to enjoy the games live. Our findings show that fans will not only avoid their close friends and family but also dodge TV, radio and even messaging platforms and social media sites to not hear a score.

“This is exceptional given the nation’s mobile-first culture and inability to put down a mobile device even for a second. It just goes to show how important live events are to consumers and the lengths football fans will go to to experience the euphoria of watching a match unfold.”

Yahoo Sport will be covering all the build up, games and post-analysis on the Yahoo Sport app and yahoo.co.uk and daily throughout the tournament with live show ‘The 32’.

Methodology

The survey was conducted by Oath and YouGov from 9th to 20th February with a group of 7294 respondents (Men and women between the ages of 18-55 yrs who plan on watching the World Cup 2018). It covers insights from people in England, France, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Spain.

*3,350,554 (22%) of the population will avoid friends and family during the World Cup to dodge hearing the score. ONS data shows that 33,108,246 will watch people aged between 18-55 in the UK who are planning to watch the World Cup. An incidence rate of 46% was applied to get 15,229,793 with the 22% applied to this to get the final figure.

About Yahoo Sport

Yahoo Sport is connecting fans everyday to the sports they love and new sports they are going to love. We’re building a powerhouse of sports content and delivering it on every mobile device. We deliver a best-in-class mobile experience with original content optimised based on how today’s fan consumes throughout the day.

About Oath

Oath, a subsidiary of Verizon, is a values-led company committed to building brands people love. Oath reaches one billion people around the world with a dynamic house of media and technology brands. A global leader in digital and mobile, Oath is shaping the future of media and technology. For more on Oath, visit www.oath.com.