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Statistics on club and match attendances – spectator numbers.
FC Copenhagen of the Danish headed the list of top 40 Nordic Football Clubs as ranked by Average Attendance for season 2008. Norway’s Rosenborg BK were ranked second and Swedens’ top ranked team were AIK, in 5th position. Countries included in this analysis were: Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Domestic league matches only – Sweden, Norway and Finland play only during summer months therefore 2004/05 refers only to 2005 season etc.
Olympique de Marseille headed the list of top 30 French football clubs ranked by Average Attendance in 2008-09 – France Football Ligue Attendances – for domestic matches only. Paris Saint Germain were the second-best supported club and Olympique Lyonnais were third.
The top two tiers of professional football in France are run by the Ligue de Football Professionnel – Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Below that are a number of leagues run by the Fédération Française de Football. Level 3 is the semi-professional Championnat de France National.
Manchester United, with 75,305 spectators per game, headed the list of the Top 30 English Football Clubs by League Attendances for season 2008/09. Arsenal were ranked second (with just over 60,000 spectators) and Newcastle United were ranked third (48,750 spectators). Premier League clubs took the first eleven rankings with Derby County the highest ranked Championship club, attracting an average of just over 29,000 spectators.
Figures are for domestic league matches only.
Celtic, with over 57,000 spectators per dometic league match, headed the list of the top 20 Scottish Football Clubs as ranked by average match attendance in 2008/09. They were closely followed by cross-town rivals Rangers who averaged just under 50,000.
However, after these two Glasgow clubs, there was a significant fall in number of spectators, with third-placed Hearts only averaging 14,400. Less than most Championship clubs south of the border.
Borussia Dortmund headed the list of top thirty Bundesliga football clubs by average match attendances, spectators at German league domestic games in season 2008/09. In second position was Bayern Munich and third Schalke 04. The Bundesliga was created in 1963 – originally founded by the German Football Association but now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga. It is composed of two divisions: the 1. Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga (which was created in 1974). Each division has 18 teams.
AC Milan headed the list of top Italian Football Clubs as ranked by average domestic league attendances, Serie A and Serie B, in season 2008/09. Second ranked was Internazionale and third Napoli. Serie A was formed in 1929 and is currently comprised of twenty teams. The championship winners (the ‘scudetto’) for 2008/09 were Inter-Milan. Serie B (also called the ‘campionato cadetto’) comprises of twenty-two teams. At the end of the season, three teams are promoted to Serie A and four teams are relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione. The top two teams are automatically promoted.
Manchester United headed the list of top 30 European football clubs as ranked by average match attendances – domestic league matches only spectator numbers – in season 2008/09. Second ranked was Borussia Dortmund and third Real Madrid. Within the top thirty there were eleven clubs from Germany, seven from England, four from Spain, and two each from Italy, France, the Netherlands and Scotland.
FC Basel of Switzerland headed the list of Top 10 Supported Football Clubs in Austria and Switzerland for season 2008/09, averaging 21,045 spectators at domestic league matches (Axpo Super League). However, the winner of the Swiss championship that year was FC Zürich. The highest placed Austrian club was Rapid Vienna, which averaged 15,775 spectators (Austrian Football Bundesliga – won by FC Red Bull Salzburg).
Figures are for average attendances at domestic league matches only.
Real Madrid headed the list of the top thirty Spanish football clubs as ranked by average domestic league match attendances, very cosely followed by rivals Barcelona.
The list is mainly composed of teams playing in the Primera División (First Division – twenty teams) and the Segunda División (twenty teams) of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Professional Football League), commonly known as La Liga.
A table showing the Total Attendances (number of spectators) for the top four English Football Leagues for seasons 1948-49 to 2008-09. Figures are for domestic league matches only. Between 1948/49 and 2008-09 total attendances have decline by twenty seven per cent, although the nadir in spectator terms was the late 1980s when total attendances declined to under 20 million.
Key: Div 1 = The Championship, Div 2 and Div 3 = present day League 1 and League 2.