Last week UEFA published their Club Licensing Benchmarking Report and one of the telling conclusions from the study was that the English Championship polls third across Europe in the table of most watched leagues.
The Premier League came in top spot with total attendances of more than 13million, with the German Bundesliga in second place, but the Championship’s figure of more than 11million puts it in third (moving up from fourth in the last report), higher than Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and the French Ligue 1
League 1 came in at ninth place in the table.
The report also showed that the Premier League and Championship continue to top the list of foreign club ownership with almost two thirds of the clubs in the Premier League foreign owner, and that figure drops to 58% for the Championship.
For the first time ever, the Premier League has an average wage bill of 153.9million Euros and that is more than double of the next highest paying league, the Bundesliga with an average of 75.3million Euros.
The Premier League also boasts five clubs – Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal – who all feature in the top 20 clubs by wages.
Eleven clubs also report aggregate attendances in the league of over one million, with West Ham, Celtic and Liverpool now passing that mark to join Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City in the top 11.
England’s top 20 tier clubs also reported more revenue that all 597 clubs combined from the 48 smaller UEFA countries – except Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Russia and Turkey.
Top 10 European Leagues By Total Attendance – 2016/17
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Rank
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League
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Country
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Aggregate Attendance
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1
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Premier League
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England
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13,607,420
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2
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Bundesliga
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Germany
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12,703,896
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3
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Championship
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England
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11,086,368
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4
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La Liga
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Spain
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10,621,000
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5
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Serie A
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Italy
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8,377,860
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6
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Ligue 1
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France
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7,965,940
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7
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2. Bundesliga
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Germany
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6,652,134
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8
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Eredivisie
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Netherlands
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5,840,316
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9
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League One
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England
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4,373,496
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10
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Primeira Liga
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Portugal
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3,622,428
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