Manchester, Birmingham & London Are Red…

Football is adored worldwide. 

From Rio’s beaches to Nevada’s valleys. From the South African grassland to the Parisienne streets - this is the world’s game. Football Clubs are not just supported by those in close proximity to their stadium. The fanbase of even the smallest of clubs sprawls the most incredible distances. 

We’re talking about the Arsenal Supporter’s Club in Nigeria, the Manchester United Supporter’s Club in Nepal, and an Athletico Madrid Supporter’s Club in Edinburgh - all true, all passionate. 

Here at Mystery Shirt in a Box we’re fully aware of the love people have for different clubs around the world and more specifically, around the UK. 

While it’s probably advisable, and somewhat of a foregone conclusion, that if you’re a Geordie, you support Newcastle, for other cities, the affiliation to their local team might not be that strong. 

So, we went to find out…

The data doesn’t lie

In a bid to find out which clubs received the most support outside of their own towns and cities, we took all 20 Premier League teams, alongside 10 of their homes, and got to work with some data analysis.

It’s worth noting at this stage (if you weren’t aware) that eight of the current clubs in the top flight can loosely be labelled as London based - hence the difference between cities and clubs included!

We delved into Monthly Google Search Data to discover the popularity of clubs, both home, and away. Our search analysis looked at terms relating to kits and shirts, for example “Manchester United kit.” 

Once we had our numbers, we calculated searches per 100,000 of the population in each of the cities. 

This is where things got interesting…

The Capital is split

In terms of monthly searches for kits and shirts per 100,000 of the population in London, as you’d expect, Arsenal and Chelsea are top of the list. 

What you might not have expected, however, is that they’re also sharing the spoils with Manchester United and Liverpool with Spurs and West Ham generating less than 2 searches for every 100,000 people per month. Perhaps more disappointing for Spurs and Hammers’ fans - Manchester City actually outranks them in their own stomping ground.

The cheeky Red Devils

The age-debate of what colour Manchester is can finally be put to bed right here in this blog - with United generating 143 searches per every 100,000 of the population in Manchester against their not-so noisy neighbours’ 115.19. 

In even better news for United fans, not only do they reign free in Manchester and share the spoils in London, they’re actually ahead of the pack in Birmingham too, eclipsing Villa who tied with Liverpool in second. 

Loyalty still exists

Of course, it isn’t all betrayal. Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle, Sheffield, and Wolves all outperform the competition in their home cities - however, it could be argued that a lack of stiff opposition has led to their domination. 

Liverpool, meanwhile, whose rivals Everton are still in the top flight despite a rather nervy end to the 2022-23 campaign, are undoubtedly the stronger force when it comes to shirt and kit searches on Merseyside. 

Where shall we look at next?