With Bing predicting a win for Tottenham against Arsenal in this weekend’s North London derby*, we’ve taken a closer look at football fans’ love for facts and figures to see just how far we’ll go to stay on top of the latest soccer stats.
We’ve all got that one friend who takes football fandom to the next level, but it turns out stat lovers really don’t walk alone, as new research from Bing has found one in five football fans think about the beautiful game every hour of the day.
Liverpool fans are the most obsessed in the Premiership, with one in four thinking about the big game every hour, but it’s Londoners who top the league of match-mad fans; nearly a third (31%) pondering on penalties hourly.
It’s not just thinking about football that’s filling fans’ days; the average supporter spends four hours a week reading up on the latest news – so much that 40% of male fans hide how much time they spend doing so, and over a quarter (28%) say they look for news while they should be hard at work.
Even outside of work fans are seeking out stats in secret; the study found that 17% of male supporters had hidden the amount of time they spend from their partner, a quarter of whom doing so out of fear they think they love the sport more than them. And it gets worse:
- 28% have checked the football news in secret at a wedding
- 19% – at a family party
- 18% – around the dinner table
- 12% – in bed with their partner
- 10% – on a date
- 6% – at a funeral
- 5% – on their wedding day!
- *Spurs have a 71.4% chance of winning, Arsenal 15.4%, and it’s a 13.2% chance of a draw.
*Spurs have a 71.4% chance of winning, Arsenal 15.4%, and it’s a 13.2% chance of a draw
