Abstract
The study investigated gender perspective on the influence of football
fandom on the academic life of undergraduates in the public universities in
Enugu State. Specifically, the study determined ways respondents react to
the performance of their favorite football clubs; as well as perceived positive
and negative ways football fandom influence academic lives of the
respondents. Population comprised of 66,460 students from the two public
universities in Enugu state. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to
select 600 undergraduate students as sample for the study. Sports fandom
questionnaire and researcher-structured questionnaire were used for data
collection. Frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation, chi-square
and Pearson’s correlation were used for data analyses. Findings show that
73.5% of the respondents just jubilate in reaction to club victories. In
reaction to club losses, 43.7% are just sad while 5.7% fight with fans of other
teams. The respondents agreed that football fandom inspires them to work
hard at their studies ( =3.51), improves their general knowledge ( =3.46)
and keeps them mentally and emotionally fit for their studies ( =3.32). Male
respondents agreed that football fandom reduces their time for studies (
=3.10), makes them skip meals ( =3.58) and drives them to gambling (
=3.12). It was recommended that school administration should get involved
in the matters relating to football fandom among students in other to curtail
its negative impacts on students’ academic lives.