Manchester United had the highest aggregate attendance in domestic league football of any club in Europe last season, despite it being their worst Premier League performance on record.
An injury-hit United squad laboured to eighth under Erik ten Hag, eclipsing the Red Devils’ previous worst campaign in 2013-14 when they finished seventh.
However, that did not stop fans attending Old Trafford in big numbers and a new UEFA report has found they were the best-supported club in domestic leagues in 2023-24 with 1,397,148 attending their 19 Premier League home games.
United’s aggregate for all competitive games was 1,834,291, which put them just behind Borussia Dortmund – who got through to the Champions League final – on 1,951,745.
Dortmund also had the highest average league attendance of 81,305, but played 17 home games instead of United’s 19.
UEFA’s ‘European Club Talent and Competition Landscape report’, which is being published on Thursday, found 16 clubs had aggregate attendances over one million last season.
Three other English clubs – West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal – occupied the final three places in the top 10 for aggregate attendance across all competitive games.
Manchester City’s 19 Premier League games were watched by 1,013,395, UEFA found. The Premier League led the way in overall attendances – 14.7m. This was a drop of four per cent but the average stadium capacity in 2023-24 was down by five per cent compared to the previous season.
The average Premier League match lasted longer than 100 minutes for the first time in 2023-24, the report found.
Last season was the first when domestic leagues around the world implemented a directive from the game’s lawmakers to more accurately calculate stoppage time, first seen at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The average match length in the English top flight increased from 98.5 minutes in 2022-23 to 101.6 minutes last season.
Matches lasting more than 100 minutes used to be a rarity in England but have now become the norm. The share of matches exceeding 100 minutes jumped from 25 per cent in 2022-23 to 68 per cent last season.
