Liverpool is now the most popular football club in the UK, according to new research.
Manchester United is most desirable globally – but only just, with 6.66% more interest than second-placed Liverpool.
Domestically dominant Manchester City is less popular than Leeds United with British football fans.
Swindon, home to free-falling Swindon Town FC, is the epicentre of the UK’s top-flight interest.
Liverpool Football Club will begin their 130th season in existence as the most popular club in the UK, new research can reveal.
When the 30th Premier League season gets underway on August 13, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds will be top of the tree domestically, ousting bitter rivals Manchester United by just 0.69%.
The True Colours of Football study, conducted by William Hill, crunched a range of search volume data for each top-flight club in hundreds of key towns and cities across the UK, as well as accurately mapping online popularity in almost every country across the globe.
The rivalry between the Reds and Red Devils goes back a long way, and it is Liverpool’s leveraging of their on-field successes in 2019 and 2020, where they won both the Champions League and Premier League, the latter their first title triumph in 30 years, that appear to have made all the difference.
While just one mile, or a three-minute car journey, separates Liverpool’s home Anfield and Goodison Park, home to Merseyside rivals Everton, it is the Reds that get a mammoth 73.69% more attention from the city of the mythical liver bird.
Manchester City, who finished 12 points clear at the top last season, will be determined to keep their incredible domestic success going, but when it comes to popularity, were they ever really noisy neighbours? A huge 42.11% more of Manchester’s interest in the beautiful game goes the way of the Old Trafford club.
A glance at goings on in the capital make for curious reading too. It is Arsenal that outgun all-comers – 37% more popular in online interest than their nearest rivals, Manchester United!
And while United and Liverpool claim second and third respectively, Tottenham (11.24%) and Chelsea (10.67%) follow, with the remaining trio of West Ham, Crystal Palace and Fulham collectively garnering just 8.79% of London’s interest in the top flight.
London, one of the world’s most visited cities, with its cultural dynamism and 8.982 million population, finishes a rather disappointing 24th in the list of global towns and cities interested in the English Premier League, a list dominated by the African trio of Kampala, Nairobi and Freetown, before the aforementioned Liverpool claims fourth spot.
Domestically, it was Swindon, home to financially-stricken and freefalling Swindon Town, who dethroned London as the capital of football in the UK.
To see where your club are hot, or not, whether home or across the globe, take a look at our interactive tool here: https://news.williamhill.com/football-colours/
