AC Milan remains the best supported Italian club according to a new report from sports marketing company SPORT+MARKT Italia. Although FC Barcelona and Real Madrid lost in numbers of fans, they are still the two most popular football clubs in Europe according to the second edition of the SPORT+MARKT report "Football Top 20", based on research among over 9,600 football fans between 15 and 69 years of age in 16 European countries*.
The most popular Italian club is AC Milano with 21 million followers in Europe. With the help of foreign fans, AC Milano reaches the 8th position in the Football Top 20.
"Although Juventus is the most popular club within Italy, AC Milano reaches the bigger fan base abroad and therefore beats the rival in number of fans. This makes them an attractive sponsorship platform for international companies", comments Michele Uva, Director di SPORT+MARKT Italia.
AC Milan has 17 million foreign fans - with an impressive high female support. "Women account for more than half of the foreign fans of AC Milano. I'd say, the Beckham deal was a very smart move of the team to broaden their fan base internationally," Uva said.
While AS Roma was in the Top 20 last year, they would now be on 27th position. Italy and Germany both lost one club in the Football Top 20, one Russian and one Turkish club has moved up. Such as England, Russia now has four clubs in the ranking.
After winning the UEFA Cup last May, Zenit St. Petersburg jumped from 10th to 5th position in the ranking, gaining 8.5 mill. to a total of 23.9 mill. fans. Despite European presence, they have not gained many fans from outside their own market.
In comparison to Russia or Poland, where national fans make out the lions share of the fan base, Italian clubs rely on their foreign fans. Italian clubs have 38.2 mill. foreign supporters across Europe.
* U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Croatia.
