Writerings

Who is the biggest football team in England? It is an oft-debated question amongst fans. One of the reasons for this is that there are numerous ways to define ‘biggest’. Being the biggest isn’t the same as being the most successful, which can be equated to trophy success (and even then that gets tricky when you start trying to calculate whether a Cup Winners’ Cup is worth more or less than an Intercontinental Cup). 

The most tangible aspect of being the biggest is that you have to be well-supported. But again, how to measure it? The simplest method is to look at stadium attendances. By that measure, Manchester United would easily come out on top by dint of playing at Old Trafford. But as rival fans will no doubt point out, they might be able to sell more tickets if they weren’t limited by their own grounds’ capacity. 

Other possible measures such as shirt sales or social media follows are as much driven by overseas fans as they are domestic. 

So, what to do? One way would be to poll people on what team they support. A 2023 survey did that. Case closed, right? Except when you add the percentages of those clubs, they come to 197% (plus 6% of people who don’t follow any of those teams). Clearly some of these respondents support multiple teams. It also flags the issue that ticking a box on an online poll isn’t necessarily a sign that you are a committed supporter. What we need is a visible sign that someone is a true supporter of a team.

Such as, wearing the shirt of their team in a public area. It hits a nice middle ground of being easy to achieve while not being too gatekeeper (e.g. you’re only a true fan if you can name the entire line-up of Aston Villa’s European Cup winning team). The only problem is, where to conduct this analysis? If you were to stand outside a shopping centre in London, you’d expect more Arsenal and Chelsea fans, likewise in Newcastle you’d see many more black and white striped jerseys. The solution is to conduct this experiment on neutral territory, somewhere abroad where many English sports fans are gathered.

So after that long preamble, here we go. I attended the Ashes tests in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney over December and January. Thousands of English cricket fans were in attendance at each game, many sporting sporting apparel. The Australian summer is also useful for this as there were very few jumpers and coats covering the shirts.

As I moved around the stadiums, I kept a tally of every English Premier League and English Football League team’s shirts that I saw each day. Overall, I noted down 284 shirts.

Before the results, a few caveats. Obviously, this data is as fallible as the human collecting it. I only saw what I saw and almost certainly missed shirts. Some teams have shirts that are more identifiable than others. Also, I was counting shirts not people. Without doubt, there were people who wore a shirt of their team on multiple days and so boosted their numbers. Though you could argue that this is just an indication of their support for their team.

Not noted down, but other teams I saw included a couple of Rangers shirts at Adelaide and an Inter Miami shirt at Sydney. I also saw shirts from Carlisle United, Hartlepool United and York City before realising that all three are currently languishing in non-league. The most obscure team I saw was St Albans. There were England national team shirts from all eras. And of course, this being a cricket series I did see lots and lots of cricket shirts. I didn’t keep track, but I think most of the 18 counties were represented. Yet, I didn’t see a single shirt from a Hundred franchise.

Full results linked here.

1. Leeds United
2. Arsenal
3. Newcastle United
4. Manchester United

Leeds United pipped Arsenal by an extra three shirts across the Test matches to claim the top spot. Strong Yorkshire, strong England is a cricket saying and despite England’s 4-1 defeat, the Elland Road natives turned up in big numbers.   

These top four were comfortably clear of the rest of the pack. While there isn’t a single season where they were the top four in the Premier League, from 1998/99 to 2002/03 they filled three of the top four spots. It makes sense that the teams who were successful then are popular now, a quarter of a century later, with the average middle-aged cricket fan.

=5. Aston Villa

=5. Coventry City

=5. Middlesbrough

=5. Nottingham Forest

9. Liverpool

10. Queens Park Rangers

A strong showing for the four less-fancied clubs all in joining fifth. Villa and Forest perhaps benefitting from being in cities with Test match venues. Liverpool down in ninth is a bit of a surprise given their record 20 league titles. The common perception of cricket being a sport for southern dandies is proved mistaken by the presence of just two southern clubs in the top ten. 

=11. Chelsea

=11. Ipswich Town

=11. Norwich City

=11. Sunderland

=11. Tottenham Hotspur

=16. Huddersfield Town

=16. Luton Town

=16. Preston North End

=16. Rotherham United

=16. West Bromwich Albion

=16. Wolverhampton Wanderers

=22. Birmingham City

=22. Bradford City

=22. Crystal Palace

=22. Everton

=22. Grimsby Town

=22. Hull City

=22. Leicester City

=22. Oxford United

=22. Stoke City

=22. West Ham United

=32. Brighton and Hove Albion

=32. Bristol Rovers

=32. Southampton

=32. Watford

=36. Reading

=36. Sheffield Wednesday

=36. Wrexham

=39. Blackburn Rovers

=39. Bolton Wanderers

=39. Bournemouth

=39. Cambridge United

=39. Derby County

=39. Manchester City

=39. Portsmouth

=46. Brentford

=46. Cheltenham Town

=46. Plymouth Argyle

=46. Sheffield United

=50. Barrow

=50. Bristol City

=50. Burnley

=50. Charlton Athletic

=50. Chesterfield

=50. Crewe Alexandra

=50. Exeter City

=50. Fulham

=50. Gillingham

=50. Lincoln City

=50. Millwall

=50. Notts County

=50. Peterborough United

=50. Port Vale

=50. Shrewsbury Town

=50. Stevenage

=50. Stockport County

=50. Swansea City

=50. Swindon Town

=50. Walsall

=50. Wimbledon

A few observations

It would be interesting to see how this was affected by it being cricket fans. Would rugby fans on a Lions tour have different favourites? How much are Leeds boosted by being a city that, in Headingley, is home to a Test match ground. Manchester United (Old Trafford) and Nottingham Forest (Trent Bridge) are probably the two other clubs that are closest linked to a cricket venue. 

The other interesting variable would be the age of the fans. Would Chelsea be more popular with younger fans who chose their team in the Abramovich era? While even with jokes about their plastic gloryhunting fans, Manchester City down below Wrexham and level with Cambridge United is quite something.

All 20 Premier League clubs and 24 Championship clubs were represented which is pretty good going. The currently highest position team in the football pyramid not represented was Cardiff City, although they are a Welsh club to be fair. The highest positioned English club not represented was Wycombe Wanderers.