800,000 fans from outside Britain attended live matches in the UK in 2014 and Ireland were responsible for a whopping 121,000 of them.
Unsurprisingly, Irish football supporters topped the bill in terms of foreign fans travelling to the UK for games.
93,000 Norwegians made the trip while 58,000 from Sweden and 53,000 from the U.S.A. all arrived which contributed a grand total of £684 million (€892 million) to the economy.
121,000 of those visitors came from Ireland, while 93,000 travelled over from Norway. #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/T3j8bVLOqM
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 10, 2015
The most popular stadiums were Old Trafford and the Emirates which both saw 109,000 fans from overseas pass through their turnstiles in 2014 while Liverpool had 99,000 internationals visit Anfield.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore referred to the trend as “very encouraging.”
While it’s all well and good travelling over to catch a glimpse of the team you support in action, it makes for worrying reading when you consider how often League of Ireland grounds fail to reach capacity.
There’s football here too lads.
