Becoming a world famous global club

[brite blu sky]

A couple of points about this.. While you are correct in showing this as a general global appeal, it is only as representative as Facebook is, the demographic of which is limited to younger people.
I heard somewhere recently that the age demograph for City fans was dominated by 40 somethings, which basically reflects the last time we had a successful team.

City wont make inroads into increased support until we win something.. and probably really the title. My belief is that if and when that happens there will be two effects, one that a whole mass of Mancunians will suddenly come out of the woodwork and want season tickets and second that a new wave of support will start to grow both locally and globally. Only then will you see something reflected in something like Facebook.

The other point is looking at Chelsea. The average increase in attendance since Abromovich is only 1900 more than before. Yet look at the number of Facebook 'fans'.. suggesting that these supporters are not based in the UK and are only interested in Chelsea for the players they have and the winning.

Average age of a Facebook user is 38.

Average age of the world population as a whole is 37 and rising due to longer lives.
Facebook users are probably mainly over the age of about 10 so the average is pushed up by the absence of young kids. Possibly by a margin of about 10 years or even more. So i would say that figure is distorted and the overwhelming majority of users are 16 to 30 somethings.

here is a stat from 2008. A bit old but a quick look around shows it hasn't changes much since.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/09/facebook-growth-by-age-group-s.html

In the U.S. (51%), Turkey (53%), and France (51%), more than half of all Facebook users are 18-25 years old

A lot of places have more than double the amount of users 18-25, than 26 -34.

So i will stand by original point that it is dominated by younger people who dont remember City as successful.

[JamieMCFC]

A couple of points about this.. While you are correct in showing this as a general global appeal, it is only as representative as Facebook is, the demographic of which is limited to younger people.
I heard somewhere recently that the age demograph for City fans was dominated by 40 somethings, which basically reflects the last time we had a successful team.

City wont make inroads into increased support until we win something.. and probably really the title. My belief is that if and when that happens there will be two effects, one that a whole mass of Mancunians will suddenly come out of the woodwork and want season tickets and second that a new wave of support will start to grow both locally and globally. Only then will you see something reflected in something like Facebook.

The other point is looking at Chelsea. The average increase in attendance since Abromovich is only 1900 more than before. Yet look at the number of Facebook 'fans'.. suggesting that these supporters are not based in the UK and are only interested in Chelsea for the players they have and the winning.

Average age of a Facebook user is 38.

Average age of the world population as a whole is 37 and rising due to longer lives.
Facebook users are probably mainly over the age of about 10 so the average is pushed up by the absence of young kids. Possibly by a margin of about 10 years or even more. So i would say that figure is distorted and the overwhelming majority of users are 16 to 30 somethings.

here is a stat from 2008. A bit old but a quick look around shows it hasn't changes much since.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/09/facebook-growth-by-age-group-s.html

In the U.S. (51%), Turkey (53%), and France (51%), more than half of all Facebook users are 18-25 years old

A lot of places have more than double the amount of users 18-25, than 26 -34.

So i will stand by original point that it is dominated by younger people who dont remember City as successful.

That was the only stat I remembered off the top of my head for Facebook. I have a more detailed and up to date report for all social networking sites. If you want a really good breakdown I can post them on Monday when I am back to work. The countries I have in my report are the U.S., England, Canada, UK, Turkey, Mexico and China.

[Wooders]

Fuck me Galatasaray!

hardly surprising, it's nearly impossible to find kebab house that doesn't have their team photo on the wall somewhere there. Always worth a laugh to put your thumb up and say 'Fenerbache' when your leaving. Just make sure he isn't slicing anything with a knife when you do it.

every dude of turkish descent I met when in Oz - and there are a fair few of them over there, supported gala - it came as no suprise

the figures don't lie though we've got some ground to make up - I reckon if we look at these figures again in a decades time (lets face it, us sad cunts will still be posting here in 3d or whatever) it will look very different

[mr_nool]

Fuck me Galatasaray!

hardly surprising, it's nearly impossible to find kebab house that doesn't have their team photo on the wall somewhere there. Always worth a laugh to put your thumb up and say 'Fenerbache' when your leaving. Just make sure he isn't slicing anything with a knife when you do it.

every dude of turkish descent I met when in Oz - and there are a fair few of them over there, supported gala - it came as no suprise

the figures don't lie though we've got some ground to make up - I reckon if we look at these figures again in a decades time (lets face it, us sad cunts will still be posting here in 3d or whatever) it will look very different

I'm gonna enter this as a task for somewhere in 2020 in my Outlook calender, along with seeing if anything that George Friedman's predicted in 'The Next 100 Years' has come through.

[ruralblue]

I think as well that a lot of people have Barca / Real / Inter and maybe a couple of others as second teams that they follow abroad. Interesting to see City up there so high.

[the_georgian_genius]

Thought it might be interesting 4 months on to see if it has change and boy has it changed

OCTOBER 2010
Barcelona - 5,405,000
Galatasary - 4,435,000
Real Madrid - 4,406,000
Man United - 3,350,000
Liverpool - 2,810,000
Chelsea - 1,942,000
Arsenal - 1,789,000
City - 186,000
Spurs - 176,000
Everton - 80,000
Aston Villa - 80,000
Newcastle - 54,000

FEBRUARY 2011
Barcelona - 9,964,000
Man United - 9,688,000
Real Madrid - 9,224,000
Galatasary - 5,003,000
Liverpool - 4,527,000
Arsenal - 4,348,000
Chelsea - 4,038,000
Fenerbache - 3,396,000
Milan - 2,678,000
Bayern Munich - 834,000
City - 439,000
Spurs - 424,697
Everton - 131,000
Aston Villa - 132,000
Newcastle - 121,000

I find it interesting anyway.

[ant london]

we're ahead of fucking Spurs....that'll do for me for the time being

[CTID Hants]

Thought it might be interesting 4 months on to see if it has change and boy has it changed

OCTOBER 2010
Barcelona - 5,405,000
Galatasary - 4,435,000
Real Madrid - 4,406,000
Man United - 3,350,000
Liverpool - 2,810,000
Chelsea - 1,942,000
Arsenal - 1,789,000
City - 186,000
Spurs - 176,000
Everton - 80,000
Aston Villa - 80,000
Newcastle - 54,000

FEBRUARY 2011
Barcelona - 9,964,000
Man United - 9,688,000
Real Madrid - 9,224,000
Galatasary - 5,003,000
Liverpool - 4,527,000
Arsenal - 4,348,000
Chelsea - 4,038,000
Fenerbache - 3,396,000
Milan - 2,678,000
Bayern Munich - 834,000
City - 439,000
Spurs - 424,697
Everton - 131,000
Aston Villa - 132,000
Newcastle - 121,000

I find it interesting anyway.

Out of interest, who were the first English prem team to have an official FB page, does it tell you that? Also which is most active with their content??

[Ted Hughes]

The fact that Chelsea have almost half the interest of Rags & Liverpool in spite of their real success only beginning in relatively recent times, with Mourinho managing this current side, in spite of rags having their Munich, Champ's Lgs, decades of PL success, Mickeys their 5 European Cups, many Championships for decades before etc etc suggests that current success can bring a lot of new interest. This is obviously a good time to build support around the world.

City are going to put everything into closing that gap, both on the pitch & beyond & those stats tell me they'll probably succeed.

[Mikhail Chigorin]

As an ancient, decrepit and clapped out old dinosaur, with the technological knowledge and understanding of a fossilised shrimp, can someone tell me what 'A Facebook' actually is ?? It must certainly be exciting if you guys are all in raptures over it.

Is it in anyway linked to when you go on holiday and are sitting on the beach reading a novel. When you get tired and want to have some 'shut-eye', is it when you lay back, close your eyes and then put the book on your face to block out the sunlight, in order to assist in wandering off into dreamland (where City are playing Barcelona in the Final of the Champions League and are winning 6-0 with two minutes to go) ?? .........

[bluej]

As an ancient, decrepit and clapped out old dinosaur, with the technological knowledge and understanding of a fossilised shrimp, can someone tell me what 'A Facebook' actually is ?? It must certainly be exciting if you guys are all in raptures over it.

Is it in anyway linked to when you go on holiday and are sitting on the beach reading a novel. When you get tired and want to have some 'shut-eye', is it when you lay back, close your eyes and then put the book on your face to block out the sunlight, in order to assist in wandering off into dreamland (where City are playing Barcelona in the Final of the Champions League and are winning 6-0 with two minutes to go) ?? .........

The way you've just described in that last paragraph is infinitely better than it really is to be honest.

[raoul_duke]

Facebook is such a powerful tool nowadays but in no way reflects any actual facts by these numbers!
All it takes to become a "fan" of those clubs in FB is clicking the "Like" button on the respective club page.

I tend to believe the majority of people who click this button are either trend followers or glory hunters.
Or even people who don't have a clue what football is. And in most cases, it is a path that has been suggested
to them (via invitations/requests) and they followed just because it's a single click procedure, not something
they searched & figured out for themselves.

Moreover, many of the 'official' club pages lack support because of other, maybe longer existing fan pages.
Or just because they haven't cared enough on this matter. As we speak, AC Milan only have around 140,000 fans
in facebook. Does that make them less of a 'world famous global club' than City or Spurs? Of course not.

These numbers only depend on how much these clubs want to use this tool, or how much actual fans of
a club promote the FB "Like" feature to the rest of the world via suggesting them pages. It sure seems like
Galatasary followers spend their days & nights spreading the word in Facebook, but that doesn't mean anything.

I don't despise these outcomes as it is fame gained out of thin air (this to be taken in whatever manner you please).
All this is part of just marketing done for a club, although it's not controlled only by them.

But at the end of the day, honours and top rank silverware are of course the main reasons for global fame.