11 Eylül 2010

Alman Spor Danışmanlık firması Sports+markt tarafından Avrupa'da 10.200 taraftar arasında yapılan bir araştırmaya göre Avrupa'nın en popüler kulüpleri Barcelona ve Real Madrid oldu. Manchester United üçüncü sırayı alırken, Türkiye'de Facebook'ta en fazla taraftarı olan takım ise 4.3 milyon kişi ile Galatasaray oldu.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are the two most popular football clubs in Europe according to a survey conducted by German sports consultancy Sports+Markt.   They interviewed 10,200 fans acrooss Europe who were asked to name their favourite club or clubs.   They were allowed multiple answers. 

Interesting though this data is, a note of caution is necessary.  Traditionalists might question how far someone who follows a club from their sitting room settee really counts as a fan.  In marketing terms, they might not even buy any merchandise.

Among Premiership clubs Manchester United ranks 3rd in Europe with a fanbase of 30.6m, followed by Chelsea with 21.4m, Arsenal in 6th place with 20.3m and Liverpool in 9th place with 16.4m.  Some way behind is Spurs ranked 33rd with 3.5m.   The highest ranked club outside England and Spain is Bayern Munich in 5th place.

Barcelona's fan base rose from 44.1m in 2008-9 to 57.8m last season.  Barcelona has ten times as many 'fans' outside Spain as it does at home.  Gareth Moore of Sports + Markt commented: 'Barcelona has developed an image that people buy into.  They go about their business on and off the field in the right way.'

'The flip side is Real Madrid which has suffered in popularity because of the amount of money they have flooded into the transfer market'.    They saw their fan base decline by 10m to 31m.  However, Real is much more successful at making money of its supporters, €12.80 out of each fan.    Barcelona generates €6.80 in turnover for each European fan. 'Their challenge is to commercialise the fans in a beneficial way,' Mr Moore said.   In comparison, Bayern Munich generates €14 from each fan, Liverpool €13.30 and Arsenal €12.90.

Inter Milan saw a big rise in its fan base from 10.2m to 17.5m.  This is attributed by Sport + Markt vo the impact of José Mourinho on the Champions League winners.

The tendency for clubs to have a favourite club abroad is stronger in countries with weaker leagues such as France,  Austria, Croatia, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.   Italian, German and Spanish fans are less interested in foreign clubs while UK residents fall somewhere in between.

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