Using league attendance figures gathered from the excellent European Football Statistics website we have put together this list of former-communist bloc football clubs that boasted an average of over 10,000 spectators from league matches.
Data refers to domestic league matches only – 2007/08.
Using league attendance figures gathered from the excellent European Football Statistics website we have put together this list of former-communist bloc football clubs that boasted an average of over 10,000 spectators from league matches.
Data refers to domestic league matches only – 2007/08.
Whether these clubs will be able to maintain such levels of support now the
economic crisis is engulfing the whole region is open to debate. On the one
hand, supporting a football club and attending a match may be one of the few
areas of discretionary spending that will remain popular in hard times – where
better to vent your frustrations as you watch your swiss-franc denominated
mortgage go down the pan? On the other, whilst many football clubs in Eastern
Europe have worked hard to recreate themselves in the image of successful
western clubs, with marketing departments and merchandising initiatives (e.g.
Krylia Sovetov have teamed up with Italian giants Internazionale), many are
still reliant upon a single owner for subsidy, are carrying worrying levels of
debt, or have opaque governance structures – all of which may come under strain
in the new economic reality.