Football fans in the five largest countries in Europe – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – in these markets spent €6.9 billion on their favorite teams’ merchandise in 2005, according to Sport+Markt AG, which interviewed more than 3,000 football fans aged 15-69 for a new study.
Fans in the UK owned the most football merchandise at the end of the year, trailed by Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The UK also had the highest level of spending on club-related merchandise with an average of €184.5 per person for a national total of roughly €2.7 billion. The second largest overall market last year after the UK was Germany, where €1.7 billion was spent on this type of merchandise last year.
France came in second in terms of average spending by the fans at €134.6 per year, followed by the Germans with €113.6 per person, the Spaniards at €87.0, and the Italians at €80.0. On the other hand, France featured the lowest number of fans buying football merchandise last, or a total of roughly 7.1 million people, representing just over half of all the fans. Italy had the lowest amount of fans possessing club-related merchandise, according to the study, but it was also the country with the highest number of fans receiving this sort of merchandise as a gift. In Spain, younger fans, aged 29 and below, were the largest buyers.
The most popular fan items in the five countries were scarves and jerseys, with about 44 million fans saying they owned one of the two items. T-shirts were next, with 40 million fans saying they owned one. Products licensed by the Real Madrid and Juventus teams came on top of the score, as more than 8 million fans across the territory said they owned them. Interestingly, the majority of the fans who owned Real Madrid merchandise were from outside of Spain, while Juventus is more of an Italian phenomenon.
Young fans collect more items, but older ones spend more on these products. The study extrapolates a total of 37 million owners among the 15-to-39-year-old fans, but it shows average spending of €142 per capita among those who are aged between 40 and 49.
