Read an article earlier about the biggest clubs in Europe, by membership. It's a model I don't think is used much over here, apart from the supporters' trust owned clubs like Exeter, so I'm not giving too much away to reveal that none of the top 5 are English. Anyone want to hazard a guess who made up the top 5? One of them certainly surprised me, as did which was the biggest.
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Biggest clubs by membership
Barcelona, Real Madrid, FC Bayern, Benfica, FC United of Manchester.
Not in order, like. -
Biggest clubs by membership
BenficaComment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Oviedo?Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Benfica are meant to be the largest, but they massage the figures somewhat, I think.
FC United aren't one of the largest, but contractual obligation to mention them.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
I'm sure one of the big three in Turkey thinks that it should be on the list. Fenerbahçe most likely.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Is Olympiakos in there? They've got loads of members in Greece and the Greek diaspora.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
EIM's named three of the top five, so I'll put them on the list. Juve aren't one of them - I think this is "members" not "supporters", as in people who pay an annual fee to be a member of the club. I'm not even sure what that gets you, probably an annual newsletter and a certificate. It can't be a season ticket, the number one club has 256,000 of them. So to narrow down the guessing:
1. Bayern
2. Benfica
3. Barcelona
4. Germany's no 2 (the one that surprised by being in the top 5 and by being Germany's no 2)
5. Germany's no 3 (who surprised me by being in the top 5)Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Woah
There seems to be a lot of going on with what is meant by "member" here.
Juventus' "members" are very different from those at Spanish, German or Portuguese clubs, for oneComment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Is one of them Schalke?Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Dortmund and HSVComment
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Biggest clubs by membership
They have no ownership interest in the club or input in the election of the chairman, etc.
They are essentially members of an Official Supporters' Club.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
From Rogin's hint, I'm guessing that 4 is Schalke and 5 is Dortmund.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Kowalski and ursus complete the list between them.
Schalke '04, fourth biggest club in Europe (on these terms). I wouldn't have guessed that.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
What would be the top five in the UK?
Probably something like:
FC United (5,000ish)
Wrexham (4,000ish)
Exeter (3,000ish)
Wimbledon (2,500ish)
Chester?
Then probably Chester? Not sure I'd count Exeter as they don't really have members but have a Trust owning a controlling share (I haven't included Portsmouth cos they don't own a controlling share).Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Virtually all 92 EPL/FL clubs have membership schemes, albeit more similar to what UA says about the Juve fans.
Sometimes, some of them even get to vote on non-controversial issues , eg. shirt design, names of parts of the ground etc.
And maybe even some form of token supporters representative.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Thanks, Ceefax.Comment
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Biggest clubs by membership
Have you got the membership figures, Rogin? I'd like to see where River Plate would fit in in a global list. A few years ago (early 2012) they had the highest membership figure in the Americas, around 120,000 members. Back then they were reportedly sixth in the world, but that might have changed in the intervening four years of course (though River's figure could've gone up; in early 2012 they were in the second division, after all).
To put that into context, their paid-up members are technically entitled to get into all home games free of charge, and the Monumental has a capacity of around 60,000.Comment
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