PREMIER LEAGUE: Which club has the most tourists?

Chelsea has a bigger ratio of spectators from overseas than any top flight club, a comprehensive study of foreign visitors to Premier League matches has found.

The cosmopolitan nature of the West London club’s fanbase has been underlined by the research from ticket sales platform Ticketbis.net, which found that 28% of overseas buyers for 2014/2015 Premier League games last season went to see the Blues play.

In line with the London clubs’ power of attraction, Arsenal welcomed the second highest share of visitors from abroad to their league fixtures with more than 26%, and Manchester United are third with almost 16%.

The figures also highlight the fact that Americans are confirmed as the Premier League’s biggest foreign fans buying resale tickets, being the only country to appear in the top three nationalities of overseas supporters that buy tickets for each Premier League ground.

The rapid growth of football or ‘soccer’ in the United States is demonstrated by the findings. No less than 38 Americans have played in the English top flight since 1992, while a growing number of ex-Premier League stars are making the trip across the pond to play in Major League Soccer.

While there is no denying the emergence of a special relationship between the Premier League and US soccer fans, Asia is still the competition’s overseas stronghold.

In 80 per cent of Premier League grounds, at least one of Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong appear in the top three nations for foreign fans.

At the Emirates, there is evidence of the Gallic legacy built by long-standing Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger with French spectators making up the largest fanbase of any foreign country attending the club’s games (17.1%).

Thomas Mesa, UK and Ireland Country Manager at Ticketbis, said the gloabalisation of the Premier League is increasingly evident.

“The pull of London as a tourist magnet, coupled with Chelsea’s record as one of the Premier League’s most successful teams, are surely underlying factors in the large share of foreign supporters at Stamford Bridge."

The study of Europe’s leading four leagues over the 2014/2015 season found that for Spain’s La Liga overseas fans hail from 19 countries.

British fans (12.3%) are the most numerous foreign contingent among fans visiting Barcelona’s Nou Camp, while French fans (11.8%) are the largest group that frequent the Bernabeu Stadium of Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, a whopping 37.5% of the top 3 foreign fanbases for each Serie A club include Japanese fans.

Japanese fans also have a huge presence in Germany’s Bundesliga, taking top spot for international spectators at over half (55.6%) of the clubs in the league.