Did you know that a larger proportion of the Scottish population go to football than anywhere else in Europe? A UEFA report has revealed that Scotland’s Premiership has the highest attendance per capita of any European nation’s top league.
Interestingly, the Premiership doesn’t just top the race: it is significantly ahead of the nearest competitor. Last season, for each 1000 people living in Scotland, on average slightly over 18 went to Premiership football matches. The nearest other nation was Portugal, with just over 10 in 1000 attending the top league on average.
In terms of aggregated league attendance across the men’s top tier, Scotland is eighth, despite having a base population of only approximately 5.5 million. The Premiership’s average attendance at games is 16,500, placing it at seventh in average league attendances. Last season, Celtic welcomed over a million home supporters, placing them alongside the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Arsenal.
So there you have it: Scotland continues to outperform in terms of attendance. Yet, its teams haven’t made a dent in European football for years, while the sides outside the Old Firm seem to stagnate year-on-year (and now the men’s national team is flagging, with fourteen losses in a row).
Perhaps the next stage for the Scottish game is to gain a proper foothold in European competitions. After all, Celtic strengthened very smartly over the summer, coaxing a fair fee from Brighton for last season’s standout Matt O’Riley and putting the money to good use. The 20 year-old Arne Engels, signed for £11m, is already a Belgian international and looks highly promising – it’s easy to imagine him being sold for much more in the future. Forward Adam Idah has signed permanently after proving a handy secret weapon last year, and there are further midfield reinforcements in the forms of Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan. Celtic have assembled a squad with legitimate strength and depth.
They will need it if they are to break into Europe. The highly congested fixture calendar, thanks to the Champions League’s new ‘league phase’, has been the hot topic of the season, especially in England. An away trip to Dortmund is a dream for fans, but bad results there and then at Atalanta could knock momentum out of their campaign. Club Brugge and BSC Young Boys, however, are beatable. At Parkhead, with those record home crowds, could RB Leipzig be too?
Rangers’ recent European record is even worse, but the fixture list is a mixed bag. There are excursions to Malmo and Nice, and home games against FCSB and Lyon, and – intriguingly – Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur. They can, and should, win some of those. Hearts are in the Conference League and hope to make a decent fist of matches against Omonoia and Petrocub at Tynecastle, while travelling to face Cercle Brugge and Copenhagen.
As for the other Scottish clubs? Well, so far this season, Aberdeen look sharp, and so do Dundee United. The ‘New Firm’ in ascendance? It’s like the 80s all over again — and that’s the last time a Scottish team (Aberdeen) won a European competition (the Cup-Winners’ Cup). Could such faraway days one day return? Probably not – it may be too soon. But it certainly would give all those fans something to cheer about.
“Rangers v Livingston 14/03/2015” by Jim Easton is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.