Europe's most popular

Zenit St. Petersburgh (above), ZSKA Moscow, and Spartak Moscow are all more popular in Europe then Spurs and Atheltico Madrid, well that is the story that is being told by a recent report released by SPORT+MARKT. It’s a story that I’m very surprised to read.

The report interviewed football fans from all over Europe and found the following clubs to be the most popular clubs:

Barcelona CF
Real Madrid
Manchester United
Arsenal London
AC Milan
FC Bayern Munich
Chelsea FC
Liverpool FC
Juventus Turin
Zenit St. Petersburgh
FC Spartak Moscow
Inter Milan
Olympique Lyonnais
Olympique Marseille
ZSKA Moscow
Wisa Kraków
Ajax Amsterdam
Galatasaray Istanbul
AS Roma
Werder Bremen

A couple of things stand out to me in this report, the number of Eastern European teams that are on the list. As an American, its hard to realize the popularity of soccer teams in the ole Eastern Block and the amount of money that put into the game, which is growing each year. Two teams that I was surprised to see not included in the list was both Celtic and Rangers., I guess outside of Scotland no one cares about the Old Firm.