Barcelona, Madrid The Most Popular Clubs In Europe

Premier League say what?

The Premiership lovers will talk to people about how their league is the best around but it seems like they aren’t talking anymore.
When a fan hears that their team is the biggest, a sense of pride emerges.

This is what must have gone through the minds of the Blaugrana faithful as their beloved Barcelona was announced as the most popular team according to Sport+Markt. The company came up with a study based on the research done by 9,600 football fans ages 15-69 selected at random within 16 European countries.

In their study 44.2 million people selected Barcelona as their favorite team. Their eternal rivals came in second place with 41. These were the only two Spanish team to appear on this list. Manchester United came up with the largest fan base among English teams followed by Chelsea. Liverpool and Arsenal were also part of the top 10.

The survey is a bit skewed because in many cases the fandom of several of these individuals is based on recent success as well as marketability outside of their own country. It also does not talk about the amount of attendance that the teams can muster up during the season. Barcelona is lagging behind compared to last year’s attendance. This makes it all the more puzzling from a marketing standpoint as Barcelona will start embarking on unchartered waters in the coming weeks in the event their level of play continues its current form. That can only be attributed to only one thing- the economic crisis.

Top Five of ‘TOP-20’ (in millions)

1. FC BARCELONA…………44.2
2. Real Madrid………………41.
3. Manchester United……….37.6 4. Chelsea FC……………..25.6 5. Zenit St. Petersburg……23.9