ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Management, Marketing, and Economics
This article is part of the Research TopicEvolving Economies in Sports: Management Practices and Market ImpactsView all 6 articles
Trust and Mistrust in Fan Relationship Management: Survey Evidence on Russian Football Fans
Provisionally accepted
- University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
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Trust is a key factor in governance and economics, and therefore also in professional sports. In this context, the largest stakeholder group, the fans, is particularly important for clubs and associations, as they do more than merely consume professional sport. They can influence sports policy directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, through their behavior. In football in particular, one of the most popular sports in the world, the relationship of trust between fans and sports organizations has been the subject of various studies. However, with most empirical work on sport governance, these studies have primarily focused on Western sports leagues. For this reason, it is essential to expand the existing literature and to include sports cultures operating in strongly state-dominated environments, where politics exerts a profound influence on sport and its sociocultural meanings. As fans' attitudes toward aspects of Russian football governance are largely unexplored, the question arises how fans place their trust in organizations and institutions in Russian football. This article presents evidence from the first large-scale survey of RPL supporters (N = 4,090) with a focus on fans' attitudes, behaviors, and concerns. The findings reveal that overall, the fans surveyed show little trust in sports organizations and institutions in Russian football. Despite critical issues such as a lack of appreciation on the part of the club, trust in the management of one's favorite club is higher than trust in national and international football institutions such as the league or the association.
Keywords: Trust and mistrust, Fan relationship management, Russian football, FAN ID, footballgovernance, sport governing bodies, Supporters
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 13 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Reichel, Sannikov, Brandt and Kurscheidt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kristoff Reichel, kristoff.reichel@uni-bayreith.de
Ilia Sannikov, sannikow.im@mail.ru
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