The European fan base of the Spanish football club Barcelona has grown from 44.1 million in 2008-2009 to 57.8 million in 2009-2010, according to the Germany-based sports consultancy firm Sport + Markt, reports euFootball.BIZInter Milan also attracted millions of new fans across the continent last season and grew their fan base from 10.2 million to 17.5 million.

However, while Barcelona has a larger fan base than rivals Real Madrid, the latter club seems better at building revenue from its fans.

Comparing turnover and fan base, Sport + Markt says that Barcelona is getting EUR 6.30 from each of its fans while other clubs are getting double digits in revenues from each fan. An example is Bayern Munich, which is generating EUR 14 from each supporter.

Liverpool gets EUR 13.30 and Arsenal gets EUR 12.90 while Real Madrid makes EUR 12.80 out of each fan.

Sport + Markt research is based on a survey of 10,200 people spanning 17 countries which was conducted in May.

When asked about their favourite clubs, the respondents mentioned Barcelona and Real Madrid which emerge as the two most popular clubs in Europe; Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and AC Milan are also popular.

Gareth Moore of Sport + Markt said: "Barcelona has developed an image that people buy into. They go about their business on and off the field in the right way....The flip side is Real Madrid, which has suffered in popularity because of the amount of money they have flooded into the transfer market to buy their galácticos....Barcelona has struggled to keep abreast of the huge surge in fan levels across the globe. Their challenge is to commercialise the fans in a beneficial way."