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David Davies

Championship the third-most attended league in Europe, ahead of La Liga and Serie A

Over 60% of European leagues saw a drop-off in total attendance last season, including the League of Ireland Premier Division.

THE ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP was the third-most attended European league during the 2016-17 season, ahead of both the Spanish and Italian top flights.

The Premier League once more tops the list with total attendances of more than 13.5 million, while Germany’s Bundesliga remains in second with 12.7 million.

Five Premier League clubs featured in the top 11 most-watched by stadium-goers, with Celtic also joining Manchester United, Arsenal, Man City, West Ham and Liverpool.

For the first time, the average wage bill of the Premier League (€153.9m) is more than double that of the next highest-paying league – the Bundesliga (€75.3m).

League One – which was won by Sheffield United last term – is ranked ninth in attendance in Uefa’s Club Licensing Benchmarking Report; Germany and England provide five of the 10 leagues with the highest aggregate attendance.

Over 60% of European leagues, meanwhile, saw a drop-off in total attendance compared to the 2015/16 campaign, but for the first time in European football history, 11 clubs reported aggregate league attendances of over one million.

The League of Ireland experienced a decrease in attendance of between 5 and 15%, while the Northern Irish Premiership went in the opposite direction, increasing its overall stadium spectatorship by a similar percentage.

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Scotland was one of five countries to report an attendance increase of over 15%, but this could be attributed largely to Rangers’ return to the top flight in 2016.

English clubs occupy 16 of the top 20 places in the broadcast revenues table. Manchester United top the tree with €146m – 21% of the club’s total revenue.

England’s 20 Premier League clubs together reported more revenue than all 597 clubs combined from the 48 smaller Uefa countries (all except Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Russia and Turkey).

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