For most survey participants, sport is прежде svega entertainment. Nearly half of respondents (48.47%) experience sport as a form of leisure, while 26.99% see it as a hobby. A professional connection to sport is less common: 6.13% say they earn their living from sport.
This attitude is reflected in the way people support teams: the largest group are “sympathisers” who follow results but rarely attend matches (60.16%). Only 8.94% describe themselves as fans who go to games whenever they can, while 3.25% are members of an organised supporters’ group. More than a quarter (27.64%) say they are none of the above.
Club allegiances are polarised: Crvena zvezda attracts 42.28% of respondents, Partizan 29.27%, and Vojvodina 8.13%. An additional 17.89% support “some other club,” ranging from local teams to European brands.
A fan “biography” begins early: the median age is 8, and the most common answer is 10. Most often, allegiance comes from the family—especially from one’s father—and from one’s social circle.
The emotional vocabulary is classic: the most frequent associations with a club are “love,” “victory,” and “pride.” The sample includes slightly more women (53.66%), and the average age is around 36.
Still, the stands are far away for many: 51.47% did not attend any sports events in the previous 12 months. When they do attend, they more often choose basketball (26.36%) and football (23.43%) than other sports. As key reasons to attend more often—especially football—respondents highlight safety in the stands (20.48%), higher quality of play (17.75%), and match regularity/fairness (13.31%); ticket prices are secondary (9.56%).
The most followed sports are basketball (18.78%), football (17.96%), and tennis (17.68%), and information consumption has largely shifted to the internet, alongside traditional sources such as RTS, B92, Sport Klub, and the press.
Methodological note: the results were obtained through an online survey (N=123; November 2014) on a self-selected sample of the internet population and are not representative of all citizens of Serbia. For questions allowing multiple answers, percentages do not have to sum to 100%, and open fields may contain data-entry errors.