Publication Date
April 2023
Abstract
This study examined how French soccer fans perceive Qatar which owns French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). It compared perceptions of the country among PSG fans, fans of PSG’s rival club Olympique Marseille (OM), and fans of other French clubs. Furthermore, it examined how fans’ identification with PSG or its rival OM moderated their perceptions of Qatar. PSG fans had more favorable perceptions than the other fans and highly identified PSG fans had more positive perceptions than low-identification PSG fans. However, rival fans did not have more negative perceptions than the other fans and there was also no difference between highly identified and low-identification rival fans.