The Fan Engagement Index, published by industry expert and UCFB BA (Hons) Football Business and Media Lecturer, Kevin Rye via his Think Fan Engagement, is the gold standard for measuring Fan Engagement in English men’s professional football.
The Index, recently published for the third time (covering the 2020/2021 season), has quickly established itself as the authority in this critical area for clubs.
Explaining the thinking behind the Index, Kevin said: “Too much so-called ‘Fan Engagement’ focuses on tactical areas of clubs, like sales, marketing, social media metrics or these days, Crypto and NFTs. Engagement of primary stakeholders must be a strategic concern for every business, and for football clubs, that means fans.”
He went on, “Although they share a common language, fans and clubs often speak different dialects. What good Fan Engagement does is to act as a translator to help the two to understand and communicate with each other effectively. For clubs in particular, this means listening more and speaking less.”
The Index measures and scores using only publicly available data and is based on three areas: dialogue - the formal processes used to listen to and engage with fans; governance - what underpins those processes; and transparency - making sure that what is discussed is made public.
Kevin added “What’s really pleased me has been how much clubs are keen to use the Index to improve what they do. There is naturally a degree of competition involved because of the table itself, but it’s the best practice we share that is really driving change and improvement across the industry”
The Index has repeatedly shown that clubs across the top four-divisions in England have a lot to do, but particularly Premier League clubs. This year’s edition sees only Everton (of those in The Premier League in 2020/2021) in the top twenty.
