Quantitative Assessment of Football Web Sites: An Empirical Study of the Best European Football Club

摘要

Football and the Internet have shown early signs of a prosperous marriage. Web sites with football content are among the most popular, with football followers and web users sharing remarkably similar demographics. Despite these compelling observations, limited empirical research has been undertaken exploring how to maximise the opportunities for competitive advantage that the Internet can provide to football clubs. This research was a response to this void, and was undertaken by manually accessing and evaluating the web sites of European Football Clubs. Quality of web sites was determined using an original Web Assessment Index, which focuses on four categories: accessibility, speed, navigability and content. A detailed report of the results arising from this investigation is presented and systematically analyzed. These findings will be useful for both researchers and practitioners who seek to understand the issues relevant to football club management.