Looking for Football Fans

[Eunice]

Hi.. Looking for football fans with different cultures for discussions.. for variety in terms of thinking and point of views..

Is Mauritius big on international football such as Champions League and English Premier Leagues? As in, is it a common interest?

Feel free to post any comments for me to understand Mauritius better.. cheers..

[Dietmar]

Hi Eunice,

welcome to the Forums here.

Thats an interesting topic you are mentioning. The football scene here in Mauritius underwent some major changes these last decades. I can still remember around 15 years ago, you had different soccer teams who would mostly relate to their cultural groups. The games were hot, as were their supporters. Unfortunately often there were lots of fights among the supporters of different teams. Not always in the fairplay spirit. So then seeing that it was a hot pot close to explode the government intervened and changed it all. All those old soccer teams and names dissappeared and new teams were formed relating to their regions. So now you have regional games. I know not much of this, you don't see any games of this in TV nor do you see any fans. Since this change came, the local soccer scene kind of died out. People don't talk of local soccer anymore, mostly of the european games. Maybe it will take another decade for those regional teams to settle. Maybe the next young generations will make it revive again... No idea.

Is Mauritius big on international football such as Champions League and English Premier Leagues? As in, is it a common interest?

YES YES YES You have first of all lots and lots of Manchester United and Liverpool fans. Then you have Arsenal fans and the list goes on. Mauritians love football, and there are lots of fans here. Sometimes some british soccer clubs come to train to Mauritius, and when they get out at the airport, they are often surprised to see that there are actually groups of fans waiting for them and to get some autographs. Many british clubs have often been surprised by this and it really touched them to see what fan base they have got over here!

And if you talk about football with someone here, its for sure a long topic discussion Best is, if you are the fan of the same team as them

Feel free to post any comments for me to understand Mauritius better

Sure, you are welcome.

Have you been in Mauritius before or are you planning to come over ? hollidays, living ? What do you like about Mauritius or is there something particular about this country that you find pretty attractive ? (except that you have sun and nice beaches...)

Ok, drop us some lines when you are free, take care, bye bye.

[Eunice]

Hi Dietmar

Thank you for your insights.

Actually, I myself is a big fan of international football and I am blessed with a job that involves football. I am to liaise with a couple of locals from Mauritius during my course of work so I decided to do some self-research for some background information on the football scene in Mauritius.

But after doing extensive surfing on the Internet, I realized that I can't find much information on this. That is, until I came across this forum. And I am very glad that you have provided me with such an insightful history. I love the sun and beaches by nature so Mauritius is already on my list, whenever I can afford to go for holidays. But if all Mauritius citizens are as warm and friendly as you, I will definitely put Mauritius on the top of my "To Go" list. Hee.

I am hoping to find contacts or anyone in the market research industry on football around the globe, who can help to provide me with information to do research on football, with Mauritius as one of the destinations. Usually, such contacts will be football fans and I really love to discuss about football teams with people from different countries and cultures as the insights are usually extremely beneficial.

Hmm, maybe I should start the ball rolling myself. I am an Arsenal fan and my loved ones are fans of Liverpool and Manchester United, so we always help to support one another, provided our teams are not playing against each other (then at which we will be "every man for himself". Haha.) But I love to watch football matches so no matter which teams are playing, as long as I have the time, I can watch football matches for the whole day.

Cheers
Eunice

[Dietmar]

Hi Eunice,

your posting makes me quite curious, what kind of job is that, that you actually do ?

I am to liaise with a couple of locals from Mauritius during my course of work so I decided to do some self-research for some background information on the football scene in Mauritius.

That shouldn't be a problem here I guess.

But after doing extensive surfing on the Internet, I realized that I can't find much information on this.

Ok. This is our local newspaper calles l'express. Here you can see some local news about football in Mauritius: foot local News

I see that they redesigned their website and that their search engine isn't working. They actually havea huge archive. So maybe keep having a look on their site until it works and you might find some good old local football articles.

Here another local newspaper company that runs several magazines:
Le Mauricien

if you type football in their search engine you will get several articles. Unfortunately mostly all of them are in French. Do you understand French ?

I am hoping to find contacts or anyone in the market research industry on football around the globe, who can help to provide me with information to do research on football, with Mauritius as one of the destinations. Usually, such contacts will be football fans and I really love to discuss about football teams with people from different countries and cultures as the insights are usually extremely beneficial.

Looks like some big project to me Are you doing a documentary ? Or some special kind of website ? You can see that I am curious

If you come to Mauritius, I know some Liverpool fans, maybe some manchester ones to, maybe they would be interested to meet you and have a chat about the thing you are doing.

Wish you a good week end. I might not be online for a few days, so don't wonder if I answer back late.

[Eunice]

Hi Dietmar

Thank you very much for the links. No problem. There's always such a thing called "Google Translation". Hee.

We monitor specific matches from around the world and analyze them for research purposes. So at times, I may wish to obtain specific matches or programs from companies. Sometimes, as the online TV Schedule is inaccurate, I will need to seek information pertaining to the TV Schedule for the accurate broadcasted timings.

As for the research portion, that is of my personal interest. I have contacts with some football analysts so we always "anaylze" matches while hanging out together. And I realized that every culture will have their own interpretations of the teams etc., so I find it intriguing to find out more on my own. Hee.

Enjoy your weekend.

[Dietmar]

Hi Eunice,

that makes me think of some sort of data mining. There is much that can be done with such data. It makes me think of betting. Locally, people bet a lot on horse races and probably also on international games, I wonder if it would push people to follow more the games if they could bet on local games. Myself though am not a fan of gambling. But its an interesting analysis.

But there must be a reason why people analyze matches, and there must be quite a numerous things that one can then conclude of those analysises.

How did your interest grow for the analysis of international football teams, games and associating it with culture ? Is it also like a lifetime hobby ?

[Eunice]

Hi Dietmar

Professionally, we analyze matches purely for market research purposes. Such data are used to determine the advertising values, possible infringement monitoring etc, and can be from the broadcaster's or advertiser's point of view.

The hardest part is to be able to obtain broadcast of football matches for the countries that we are monitoring. I do have difficulty translating websites of foreign languages. Are you able to advise me the more established market research companies that are situated in Mauritius?

It can be conflicting at times as my analysis may tell me a team will win so I should bet on them but they may be playing against my favourite team. I hate the feeling of having to bet against my favourite teams purely to "earn money". Thus, I am not into betting. Though I do agree that when betting is involved, people tends to be more interested.

I myself get the satisfaction of knowing that my analysis is correct, for example, who will win for a particular match. And of course to support my favourite teams. I am a fanatic of watching beautiful football.

I have been watching international football since World Cup 1990 and was intrigued by the game. So whenever there's a big game or tournament, I would bring the topic onto the table for discussion. I must say I was pretty accurate in my own analysis so I became obsessed with the predicting aspect. Haha.

And because of this, I had opportunities to discuss with acquaintenances from around the world. And I realized that cultures do play a part in how people view football. Of course it's also amazing to realize that no matter how big a difference between 2 cultures are, the support for our favourite teams are the same. Hee.

[Dietmar]

Hi Eunice,

ok, i am getting a better picture of what you do. So lets say I am a marketing agency and I have a client that wants to market a certain product or get his brand known, this marketing agency can contact you and you could give them like a rough statistic of how many people will be in the stadium and also TV coverage, around how many people might be watching the game thus seeing that brand on those boards across the football field... ? So this information can be sold to a marketing company, or you can sell it directly to someone who wants to advertise and the way you can calculate the prices is numerous, like on the impressions, or coverage, amount of people, kind of people, buying power and so on, so it gets really into marketing then, quite broad...

I don't get it what you mean by possible infringement monitoring ?

"The hardest part is to be able to obtain broadcast of football matches for the countries that we are monitoring."

Ah yes, local games displayed on local channels... Sounds quite a fun of a job for me if someone loves football and needs to watch lots of games

"Are you able to advise me the more established market research companies that are situated in Mauritius?"

Market research companies in Mauritius, hmm, I can ask around and send you a personal message when I found some.
But the local soccer teams here, I'm not sure if they are managed as companies. I reckon that there was a time where soccer players were paid a salary, but I don't know if this still exists. So if local teams are not managed as companies, I doubt that there will be any or much data of them. But the best would be if you contact the government of sports, because there, all teams would need to be registered.

"I myself get the satisfaction of knowing that my analysis is correct, for example, who will win for a particular match. And of course to support my favourite teams. I am a fanatic of watching beautiful football."

Knowing that you can make a good analysis could tempt me into betting, but i don't like the hope for fast cash so I would refrain from it and prefer watching some beautiful football like you

"I have been watching international football since World Cup 1990 and was intrigued by the game."

Thats where Germany won right ?

I was also impressed by the brasilian games! Have you ever been in Brasil and spent sometime with teams there ?

[Eunice]

Hi Dietmar

Hmm, in a way, you are right. But I leave the marketing and sales pitch to my company's specialists.

Sorry if I misdirected my comments along the way. The local football scene is a curiousity of my own only. But thank you for all the information you have given me thus far. It has intrigued me and I am already hoping for the revival of it. Do feel free to give me more background and updates of the local football. I will check out the government aspect on my own.

My hurdle now is to find more information, specifically on the international UEFA Champions League and Barclays Premier League. Thank you for helping me out to source for the market research companies. Your offer is much appreciated.

Do you know of any websites that can provide me with updated TV Schedules? I realized that the official websites may not be updated in time for me to know the live broadcasts of the matches in advance.

As for your question on "infringement", it actually mean breaching a contract partially or fully. In my context, a company may hire us to ensure that it broadcast the advertisements of its sponsors, as agreed in the sponsorship contract. Alternatively, the sponsors can hire us to ensure that the said company broadcast the advertisements as agreed in the sponsorship contract. We act as an independent party.

Oh yeah, but though I was impressed with Brazil, I was supporting West Germany. But I am more of a player supporter than a team supporter. I appreciate all talented players who play beautiful football. But if I really have to choose, Arsenal is the club and Spain is the country. So my favourite player now is Fabregas, who happens to play for both. Haha.

[Dietmar]

Hi Eunice,

"Hmm, in a way, you are right. But I leave the marketing and sales pitch to my company's specialists."
Makes me remember design pitches of a friend...


"Do feel free to give me more background and updates of the local football."
Ok, if I see something I will let you know.


"Thank you for helping me out to source for the market research companies. Your offer is much appreciated."
I will send you a private message concerning these details.


"Do you know of any websites that can provide me with updated TV Schedules?"
Thats our local broadcasting company holding practically a monopoly here:
Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation - HomePage
We do have international cable/satellite TV Channels etc.