Football Fan Figures

Recent findings from Roy Morgan International present an interesting picture of the UK's Premiership football supporters, and underline why so many people were walking around looking worried last week at news of US businessman Malcolm Glazer's takeover of Manchester United Plc.

United is as usual - but contrary to the popular myth about all its fans living in Asia - comfortably the most supported team in the UK, with 4,830,000 supporters. Liverpool is second (not something they will want to be next week) with 3,158,000 supporters and Arsenal third with 2,904,000 supporters. There is a huge gap to current champions Chelsea with 1,386,000, and Tottenham with 1,062,000.

Relegated teams Norwich (567,000), Southampton (441,000) and Crystal Palace (321,000) would all be staying up if supporter numbers meant Premiership survival. In this novel competition, Birmingham, Blackburn and Fulham would be facing the drop as clubs with the fewest supporters.

The research also checked the agreement of supporters with certain lifestyle statements, and looked at their demographics, in order to get a picture of how they differ between clubs. This reveals that when compared to the average UK Premier League supporter . . .

Manchester United supporters are:

• more likely to be aged between 14 and 24
• more likely to be female
• more likely to agree 'I wear clothes that will get me noticed'
• more likely to agree 'I regularly go to Church or my place of worship',

Liverpool supporters are:

• more likely to be aged between 25 and 34
• more likely to agree 'I like to be with a crowd of people'
• more likely to agree 'I'd have difficulty coping with a demanding job or career'

Arsenal supporters are:

• much more likely to live in the South East / Greater London
• considerably more likely to be classed as a Professional
• more likely to have 5 or more people in the household and
• more likely to agree 'I always read the business section of the newspaper'.
  Chelsea supporters are:
  • much more likely to have 3 or more children aged under 16 in the household
  • more likely to currently rent their house
  • more likely to agree 'I love to do as many sports as possible' and
  • more likely to agree 'It's important to look fashionable'
  
  Fans and knockers of the various clubs will no doubt want to interpret these results in their own way, or to suppress them in some cases, so we'll leave that to them.
  
  Roy Morgan International interviewed 4,234 people aged 14 and over in the UK between October 2003 and February 2005. Respondents were asked 'Which team do you support?' and were allowed to name more than one team, 'though most did not. The company is online at www.roymorgan.com
  
  

  All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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