Fans identification, congruence and intention to purchase in sponsorship of professional football

Abstract

In sport, football remains the great distance the most heavily sponsored activity (Buhler et al., 2007), managed to sponsorship contracts amounting to 4.5 billion dollars (IFM, 2012). In Portugal, the number of spectators of professional league games increased to 3.091 million (LPFP, 2015). The level of identification of supporters with the sports teams has been used as a determinant of the responses to sponsorship, however, the role played by the congruence perceived between the sponsor and the team needs assessment within the effectiveness of sponsorship. Goals: Determine extent to which the identification of fans with the sports teams acts on the congruence between the sponsor and the team and acts on the intention to purchase the sponsor's products. Determine the influence of congruence between the sponsor and the team on purchase intent. Methods: The sample was composed of 1.399 supporters of a professional football team of the first league of Portugal. We used the 'Structural Equation Model - SEM'. Results: The identification of fans with the sports teams acted positively and significantly on the perceived congruence, which exerted significant positive effects on the formation of purchase intention. Perceived congruity partially mediated the effects of identification with the sports teams and purchase intent. Conclusions: The fans with the highest level of identification with the teams perceive greater congruence between the company and the team and show a greater propensity regarding the intention to purchase products from the sponsoring company.