What does football mean to you?

Once more, some of the country’s leading academics have some questions which they need answering urgently. And, thankfully, they’re sufficiently in the know to appreciate they’ll always get a straight answer from the nation’s football fans.

Furthermore, they understand supporters sussed enough to be visiting the FSF’s brand new website are certain to be blessed with brains worthy of picking.

While there are doubtless some mighty minds in Middlesbrough, boffins from the University of Teesside want to hear the word on the street from bright sparks like you, too. In fact, they want fans from the length and breadth of the land to help them conduct a major survey on the real significance of football in the lives of those who follow the game.

And, even though we’re a bit jealous of all the long holidays these academic types get, we promised we’d ask you all to do them the favour of filling out a survey form. Largely because they’ve promised all of you who decide to take part will have full access to the results, once the survey is complete – which is nice.

“We are interested in understanding the significance of football in the lives of English fans and we are seeking to gather the opinions of fans on a number of contemporary issues within the game today”, explained Tom Gibbons, lecturer in Sports Studies at the University of Teesside.

“As such, we hope fans who are members of the FSF will provide a key focus for data collection. All responses from participants in the study will be anonymous and the findings of the study will be used for academic conference proceedings, publication in academic journals and teaching purposes only. And participants will have full access to the results of the study once it is completed. We have created a link to the survey at survey.bris.ac.uk, so, in advance, many thanks to everyone who takes part.”