Survey: Barcelona is most popular club; England dethrone Spain

Barcelona1Cologne, Germany - Barcelona remains the most popular European football club but English clubs have overtaken Spain for overall fan support, a survey published on Wednesday revealed.

The Spanish leage leaders Barca retained first place with 44.2 million fans from domestic rivals Real Madrid (41.0) and European champions Manchester United (37.6).

The figures were given by the Sport+Markt agency which questioned 10,000 football fans in 16 countries.

The English clubs in the top 20 have now overtaken their Spanish rivals, the survey said, with 114.1 milliopn fans supporting the Premier League sides and 93.4 those from the Primera Division. Italy's Serie A ranks third with 60.9 million fans.

Sport+Markt said that the number of female fans of top 20 clubs was also on the rise. Turkey's Galatasaray leads the way with 54.2 per cent women's support ahead of AC Milan (50 per cent). (dpa)