The English Premier League is the world’s most watched football league. England received almost million oversea visitors in 2012 who went there to watch a football match live. This Bachelor’s thesis researches the reasons why Finnish football fans travel to England to watch English Premier League matches. The objective was to find the most important factors that affect football fans’ decision to travel and which factors attract them to England. Aim was also to create a profile of these fans.

This thesis consists of two parts; a theoretical and an empirical research part. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of sport tourism, event sport tourism, football tourism and consumer behavior. The research as an online questionnaire. The total amount of responses was 153. The results were analyzed by using MS Excel.

Most of the respondents, 84 %, have previously travelled to England to see a football match. Out of these fans nearly two thirds travel with their friends but some travel with family as well. On average over four out of five have travelled at least two times, most of them even more often. Trips are almost always made independently since only two percent of the respondents have used the services of a tour operator while travelling. For four out of five respondents a football match is the most important reason to travel to England. Besides football, other interesting activities were mentioned, for example, beer and pub culture, sightseeing and getting to know the destination city. Almost all of the respondents have participated in some other football related activities: done a stadium tour, visited a fan shop and/or visited a place otherwise important to a club. The find-ings from the research also show that fans appreciate the experience of a football game as a whole: the atmosphere, the experience itself, experiencing football culture, supporting their own club and the social aspect of the match, in other words sharing the experience with friends or family. As for reasons not to travel, lack of money and time are the most common but if offered a chance, all except one respondent would like to do a football trip to England.

In conclusion from the findings, seeing a football match is the most important part of the overall experience and it is often the most important reason to travel. Other important reasons to travel were travelling with friends, the feeling of belonging and other football related activities. From the results a profile for an average fan travelling to England for football match was drawn based on the results of this thesis.