Serie A has the lowest attendance figures of the six major European leagues, following a study on the opening weekend of the season.

The leagues involved in the study were Serie A, the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, the Bundesliga in Germany, France’s Ligue 1 and the Dutch Eredivisie.

The study, undertaken by The Guardian, revealed that of all of the divisions studied on the opening weekend of their respective seasons, Italy had more empty seats than any other country.

Topping the list was the Premier League with 98.4% of seats filled, closely followed by the Bundesliga with 93.6% of the seats being occupied across stadia in the German top flight.

In the Netherlands, just 10% of seats went unfilled with Spanish supporters occupying 75.4% with France coming in at fifth with 69.3%.

However, in Italy, the newspaper’s research revealed that just 55.8% of seats were filled on the opening weekend of fixtures, putting them well behind the rest in sixth spot.

By comparison with regards to individual games, there were more than 75,000 fans at Old Trafford to watch Louis van Gaal lose his Manchester United debut at home against Swansea City.

In Germany, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund both completely sold out their stadiums on the opening weekend as they returned to league duty.

Newly-promoted Eibar in Spain did only have 5,173 in attendance – but that figure becomes a little more impressive when you consider that their Municipal de Ipurua home has only 5,250 seats.

But Milan’s Stadio Giuseppe Meazza stadium, which can host over 80,000 fans under its official capacity, that played host to AC Milan’s victory over Lazio was played in front of just 37,000 fans.