How many people support Manchester United?
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2013
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week Ruth Alexander looks at Manchester United versus Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League. Real Manager Jose Mourinho says this was the match the "world has been waiting to see". It pitched two of Europe's biggest clubs against each other in what is a supposed to be a money spinner for broadcasters and sponsors alike. But how do we know how big the interest is? Manchester United claim 650 million fans worldwide, but how can we know? Nick Harris of SportingIntelligence.com and Richard Brinkman of KantarMedia help us look at the figures. Also: this round of the Champions League has been a statistical surprise. The rehearsal and the real draw threw up the same fixtures meaning that the same teams were picked to play each other in both draws. Statistician Michael Wallace helps us calculate the chances of this happening.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:03.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use |
| 0:07.0 | go to BBCWorldService.com slash podcasts. |
| 0:13.0 | Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service, |
| 0:16.0 | giving penalties for statistical fouls. I'm Ruth Alexander. |
| 0:20.0 | And I'm Wesley Stevenson. It was the match the world wanted to see. |
| 0:23.0 | That was according to Real Madrid manager Josie Maurinho. |
| 0:27.0 | The Champions League clash with Manchester United |
| 0:30.0 | in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League lived up to the hype |
| 0:34.0 | and it ended one all. |
| 0:36.0 | It's said that Real Madrid and Manchester United |
| 0:38.0 | are two of the biggest teams in the world. |
| 0:41.0 | But how many fans do they have worldwide? |
| 0:44.0 | At Old Trafford, you could see that Manchester United claimed |
| 0:47.0 | more than 600 million followers. |
| 0:49.0 | Official documents for its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange last year |
| 0:54.0 | said that this number is actually 659 million. |
| 0:59.0 | Now Real Madrid don't publish a worldwide figure, |
| 1:02.0 | but their director of communications has been quoted in the past |
| 1:05.0 | as saying the club has 300 million followers across the world, |
| 1:08.0 | which is still pretty big. |
| 1:10.0 | But how do they know? How do you survey the world? |
... |
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