Study: The UK Is Officially the Most Expensive Country To Be A Football Fan

Followed by Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, and Spain

LONDON - March 16th 2021 - Broadband Savvy, a leading authority in broadband service and performance, today released the results of a study into the cost of being a football fan in 40 different countries. The study found that it costs a British football fan £194.71 per month to support their club - the most of any country in the world. The research assessed the cost of watching the Premier League and domestic top-flight league (if different) on TV, the average cost of a top-flight season ticket, and the cost of travel to watch away games.

British football fans face the highest season ticket costs in the world, and the second-highest monthly cost of watching the Premier League on TV.

“Season ticket costs for British football fans are very high, even by European standards.” said Tom Paton, founder of Broadband Savvy. “You might pay around £800 for a Premier League season ticket at a British Champions League club, compared to the equivalent of £500 in Spain or £400 in .”

“But what really astonished us was the cost of watching the Premier League on TV in the UK, compared to other countries. For British football fans, it would cost you about £50 per month to subscribe to all the services necessary to watch every single Premier League match live. Doing the exact same would cost you about £11 per month in the US, £8 in Australia, and just £1 in India.”

British football fans also have to put up with relatively high costs of attending away games. “It costs about the equivalent of £55 to take the train to an away day on the other side of the country in Portugal, Croatia or , including your return ticket. But we found that taking the train to St. James' Park as a Brighton fan would cost you more than £150, despite the trip distance being shorter than say Malmo to Stockholm.”

Other countries were expensive for different reasons. In Denmark for instance, it would cost a massive £90 per month to watch all Premier League games on TV, plus another £30 to watch all Danish Superliga matches. On the other hand, Canada, Japan and Australia all made the top ten due their high cost of travel to away games. Meanwhile, Switzerland, which was the fourth most expensive country, had relatively high costs across the board.

“The cost of watching football on TV in Denmark was really astonishing,” Tom said. “To watch every Premier League and Danish Superliga match would cost the equivalent of about £120 per month in Denmark. This was by far the highest cost of watching football on TV of any country we assessed. In Switzerland, the second-most expensive country to watch football on TV, it would only cost about £70 per month to watch all Premier League and games.”

The most expensive countries were found to be:

1. United Kingdom 2. Canada 3. Denmark 4. Switzerland 5. Spain 6. Japan 7. Australia 8. Italy 9. China 10.

While the ten least expensive countries were:

31. Paraguay 32. Hong Kong 33. Russia 34. Turkey 35. Uruguay 36. Croatia 37. Czech Republic 38. Qatar 39. 40. India

India was found to be the cheapest country in the world to be a football fan by a considerable margin, with a monthly cost of just £13.50. “Even accounting for the cost of living difference, it was very surprising just how cheap it is to watch the Premier League on TV in India. British football fans would give their right arm for the chance to watch every game live on TV for less than £1 per month. We found that Indian Super League is also inexpensive to watch on TV, and the league’s season ticket prices are quite reasonable, which is why India performed so well in our rankings.

The research was conducted in December 2020. 40 different countries were assessed, each with a globally-recognised domestic top flight football league.

To view the complete rankings and learn more about the methodology used, visit https://broadbandsavvy.com/most-expensive-countries-for-football-fans/

About Broadband Savvy At Broadband Savvy, our mission is to help British households get the most out of their home broadband. We provide tutorials, explainer videos, and buyer’s guides to cut through the jargon, and help people become Broadband Savvy. Whether you’re looking to improve your internet speed, want to troubleshoot Wi-Fi dropouts, or are shopping for a new broadband deal, we’ve got you covered. For more information, visit https://broadbandsavvy.com/

Notes for editors • If you have any questions about this research, please reach out to Tom Paton – tom(at)broadbandsavvy.com. • When using this research, please credit Broadband Savvy by linking back to the original page containing the source data and interactive map, or our homepage if this is not possible.