Front room fans face injury time

Research commissioned by Logitech has found that football fever will create havoc in living rooms this summer, as the excitement and frustration of the championships gets too much for fans.

The Logitech study, conducted by Lightspeed Research, found that men’s emotional outbursts are causing chaos in our living rooms and accidents are becoming commonplace.

When celebrating a goal, just under 40 percent (39 percent) of respondents have injured themselves or a friend, and over one in five (22 per cent) of English men have even admitted to having broken a piece of furniture.

Furthermore, over half (56 percent) have claimed to have stained the carpet or sofa with spilt beer, and over a quarter (26 percent) have thrown the remote across the living room whilst celebrating a goal.

The study also uncovered the lengths that men will go to, to avoid jinxing their team. These superstitious stay-at-home sports watchers will undertake a variety of rituals to give their team that extra bit of luck.

Just under two thirds (60 percent) of respondents will always sit in the same place on the sofa. Other superstitions include a third wearing a lucky football shirt or item of clothing, 13 percent singing the national anthem at the start of every match and one in 20 forsaking their vanity for their team and not shaving through the entire tournament.

The same number would hold a lucky item, such as a coin or a keyring.

“Once again we find a great deal of activity going on in the living room during high TV watching season,” says Frédéric Boutin, Harmony European Product Manager at Logitech.

“Whilst we can’t guarantee accident-free front rooms, we can provide the must have remote for this summer’s footballing championship, and we are hoping that our new range of Universal remotes will bring a touch of harmony to living rooms across Europe this summer.”

But if you’re looking for complete peace and quiet this summer, be prepared to splash the cash as 63 percent of English men admitted the only way they would be prepared to hand over the remote control during a game is through bribery.

According to the survey, it will cost you anywhere between £200 and £1000 to put you back in charge of the TV.

But money is not the answer to everything as the men in question were divided over this issue with 37 percent of die-hard football fans stating that no amount of money would persuade them to give up the remote if their team was playing.

Logitech has recently launched its newest range of Harmony remote controls. The Logitech® Harmony® 300i Remote replaces up to four other remotes, is simple to set up and with a suggested retail price of £29.99 inc. VAT is the perfect companion to this summer’s football season. For further details of the entire Harmony range, please visit: www.logitech.com

Follow FFT.com on Twitter
Join FFT.com on Facebook