I open my RSS reader in the morning, and there’s this:

Football.ua readers consider Dynamo the most popular club in Ukraine

As it turned out, the rich history and long hegemony of Kyiv Dynamo in our football have still not been forgotten — it was the capital club that took the palm in the poll — 38.2% of those who voted, 29394 people.

The rapid rise of Donetsk Shakhtar has not yet helped it climb to the top of popularity in Ukrainian football, but the Miners’ progress was not for nothing — the orange-and-blacks have a very weighty figure to their name (31%, 23,817).

Naturally, the first two places surprised few people, but the third may have come as a surprise to many. “Bronze” Metalist and its fierce rival Dnipro let Lviv Karpaty get ahead of them. Apparently, the white-and-greens’ recent successes have paid off right now. Almost 13% of users (9801) cast their vote for the Lviv side. Metalist’s figure is 10.1% (7746), Dnipro’s — 5.9% (4546).

football.ua

That is, let’s repeat the voting results once more:

  1. Dynamo — 29,394 users.
  2. Shakhtar — 23,817.
  3. Karpaty — 9,801.
  4. Metalist — 7,746.
  5. Dnipro — 4,546.

While the editor of Football.ua is surprised by third place, I was surprised by first. Let’s try to make sense of these numbers.

It is known that the internet is the most convenient means of expressing your opinion publicly without breaking the mental connection between ass and chair. But it is also known that words can diverge from deeds.

There is only one correct way to assess the popularity of a given club. The method is ridiculously simple — you need to count the number of fans attending the club’s matches. To attend a game, clicking a button on the internet is not enough. You have to get up from the chair, get to the ticket office, enter into commodity-money relations with the cashier, wait for match day, go to the stadium in harsh weather (those who were at the match on Thursday will understand), and support the team. This statistic is available on the Premier League website; you only need to look at the match reports.

Let’s look at the attendance statistics for five clubs over 11 rounds of the current championship. Home and away games are included.

**** **Total** **Average** **Min.** **Max.**
Shakhtar 260,887 23,717 1,460 38,520
Metalist 196,526 17,866 1,430 38,600
Dynamo 138,425 12,584 5,100 38,600
Dnipro 125,208 11,383 2,000 22,846
Karpaty 112,714 10,247 4,500 35,008

Now the statistics for home matches only (everyone has five home games; Shakhtar has six). The stadium capacity data is taken from the Premier League website (the figures are outdated in places).

**** **Total** **Average** **Min.** **Max.** **Stadium**
Shakhtar 196,007 32,668 29,132 38,520 51,504
Metalist 155,050 31,010 20,700 38,600 41,307
Dnipro 80,508 16,102 12,962 22,846 31,003
Dynamo 42,725 8,545 5,500 14,000 16,873
Karpaty 40,000 8,000 6,000 10,000 27,925

I dare suggest that the television audience is distributed in direct proportion.

This kind of count was already carried out for the 2009/2010 season by FC Metalist’s press service. Home-match statistics:

  1. Shakhtar — 399,923 (on average — 26,662).
  2. Metalist — 393,780 (on average — 26,252).
  3. Dnipro — 207,012 (on average — 13,800).
  4. Karpaty — 201,076 (on average — 13,405).
  5. Dynamo — 162,050 (on average — 10,803).

The main conclusion is that Dynamo’s mega-popularity exists only on the website; in reality, it is fifth in attendance.

For anyone who doesn’t understand the difference in the method of counting popularity, I’ll explain. A club’s popularity statistics according to a website poll affect only the amount of shit in the comments to that poll. Attendance statistics for a club’s games affect the interest of sponsors, advertisers, and television channels buying up the rights to broadcast matches.

And finally, you can look at the interesting statistics of the Ultras League. Teams are ranked based on the number of fans in the away section and the distance from their home city.