10+ Ranking: Europe’s top attendances (2012 edition) 12.09.2012 19:12 source: StadiumDB.com

How many football clubs in Europe have crowds of over 10,000 per game? How does the top ten look? And how many clubs from your country are listed? You’ll find answers for all of these questions below!


First time in English, though published in Poland since 2008, we present you with a complete list of all European clubs that have following of at least 10,000 people per home game. Thus the name 10+ and just as naming itself, we hope that putting all data in just two tables will be clear for all readers. We hope to keep it simple as every year over 200 football sides in Europe have attendances averaging above the limit.

In this case every year means of course crowds from last finished season (2011/12 for most of Europe, 2011 for Scandinavian leagues).

Why are we doing it? Because we believe reaching the 10,000 point shows potential and interest in football, which we hope will become apparent once you finish reading. Having regular crowds of that size is quite an achievement in many countries as most European states haven’t got even one stadium that fills to that point...

TABLE 1. Number of “10+ clubs” per country

Only 23 countries have stadiums that regularly fill above the 10,000 mark. As always, podium is reserved for England, Germany and Italy, though decrease of Italian football may clearly be seen and with numerous new stadia being built/designed in France ahead of Euro 2016, third spot seems open in upcoming seasons. Especially that Spain, another European powerhouse, is evidently running out of manpower apart from several top sides.

A dynamic change can be seen in Central and Eastern Europe with Russia having 9 clubs with crowds between 10-20,000. Interestingly, it’s not the first time that club from outside of Moscow or Saint Petersburg has largest crowds, with Kuban Krasnodar following the footsteps of Krylja Sovetov a few years back. Top Ukrainian ones (Shakhtar, Metalist, Dnipro and Dynamo) are strengthening their position with new stadiums in each city. New venues, built mostly ahead of Euro 2012, also brought a record grow in Poland with 5 clubs on the list, compared to barely one in 2009. On the downside, however, it’s clear that all of those 5 have to work harder to fill their stadia with only one having stands filled in more than 50%.

A negative trend can be seen in several other leagues. Only two Austrian sides had reasonably big crowds and none of them were the champions – Red Bull doesn’t even have every third seat taken. In Greece only Olympiacos managed to get on the list with none of their toughest competition managing to do so. Romania, Israel and Czech Republic are further countries that saw a significant decrease recently.

But before we leave you with the table, a success story comes from Serbia with Crvena Zvezda finally breaking the vicious circle that seemed to hold all four Yugoslavian superpowers (Zvezda / Partizan / Hajduk / Dinamo). Since 2009 attendances at the Belgrade’s Marakana tripled and are now reaching 20,000.

No. of clubs Country Domestic leader 44 England 3. Manchester United (75,387) 33 Germany 1. Borussia Dortmund (80,521) 22 Italy 15. AC Milan (49,020) 21 France 24. Paris Saint-Germain (42,882) 19 Spain 2. FC Barcelona (75,844) 14 Netherlands 13. Ajax Amsterdam (50,147) 9 Russia 103. Kubań Krasnodar (20,001) 6 Ukraine 37. FC Shakhtar Donetsk (36,983) 6 Switzerland 54. FC Basel (29,775) 6 Belgium 68. Standard Liège (25,113) 5 Portugal 25. SL Benfica (42,646) 5 Poland 98. Legia Warszawa (20,928) 5 Sweden 165. AIK Solna (13,865) 4 Norway 153. Rosenborg BK (14,510) 3 Scotland 12. Celtic (50,904) 3 Denmark 141. FC København (15,148) 2 Wales 83. Cardiff City (22,100) 2 Austria 137. Rapid Wien (15,767) 1 Turkey 43. Galatasaray (34,685) 1 Greece 90. Olympiakos Piräus (21,523) 1 Serbia 106. Crvena Zvezda (19,783) 1 Romania 133. Steaua (16,192) 1 Czech Republic 208. Sparta Praha (10,322)

TABLE 2. 10+ Clubs

As is tradition, England has a lot more clubs than any other country and this seems impossible to change with even 4th league Bradford having following of 10,171 – nowhere else in Europe this level of the football pyramid enjoys that kind of crowds. On the other hand, though, German clubs are the ones occupying more top spots, having some of European largest audiences – of 10 largest followings in Europe 6 can be found in Germany and only one of those crowds isn’t close to capacity (at Hertha’s Olympiastadion).

European podium changes barely year to year, always being settled between Barcelona, Borussia, Manchester United and Real Madrid (in alphabetic order). This time it was the German champions atop thanks to their Westfalenstadion having massive terracing instead of seats during domestic games. Manchester with sell-out crowds every season are dependent on their rivals’ attendances. This year Barcelona was one more to have larger audiences, but Real came 4th.

One surprise clearly seen in European top 10 is no Italian side. In previous years it was always either Inter (20th) or Milan (15th) at San Siro having one of largest crowds in Europe.

France, despite having impressive number of 22 clubs on the list also doesn’t have any powerhouse close to the top. Best season in years for PSG was only enough for 24th spot. France is bound to have a new leader soon with reconstruction of the Velodrome ongoing in Marseille and Lille having broken their all-time high for season tickets.

Similar record was also the case for Galatasaray who are seemingly outgrowing domestic rivals with their ticket sales. Though this is the only club that actually publishes attendance data in Turkey, it’s almost sure that neither Fenerbahce, nor any other side may compete as news was released that over 40,000 season tickets have been sold for the new season, meaning a further leap of “Galata” in next year’s 10+ Ranking is almost certain.