The Premier League is often held up as the most exciting league in the world – that may or may not be true. However, what is undeniable is the vast sums of money paid out to secure the rights to show the Premier League on TV (rumoured to be on the rise again from £2.03billion for the 2013-16 foreign broadcast rights to £3.2billion for the next period up for grabs) and the long list of official broadcasters across the world. The watchability of England's top flight burns ever stronger.
And some clever folks at Unibet have now worked out which teams have the most fans across the world, fuelling that thirst for Premier League action, by zeroing in on how many Facebook likes each team has gained in each country to work out the concentration per Premier League club.
Click on the interactive map below to see which country follows which team.
Clubs who sign one of the star players from that country obviously gain favour in that nation. Some examples include Arsenal being huge in Chile, Spurs having lots of fans in South Korea and Manchester City being very popular in Brazil.
The vital stats
Other findings from the analysis of Facebook likes:
- 1.2 billion people now follow Premier League football clubs
- Man United are huge in Tunisia, Ethiopia and Malaysia
- Chelsea rule the roost in Ivory Coast, Senegal and Portugal
- Further, by examining London itself it can be seen that there are more Arsenal fans there than for any other club
- The myth of Manchester United fans not living in Manchester is dispelled: people living in Manchester are 93% more likely to support United than those living elsewhere
