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St Patrick's Athletic fans. Ben Brady/INPHO

Uefa report 20% increase in LOI attendances

Uefa’s annual landscape report painted a respectable picture of the nation’s appetite for domestic football.

ATTENDANCES AT LEAGUE of Ireland matches have risen by 20%, according to Uefa’s annual landscape report. 

The annual document is among Uefa’s signature pieces of research, and it takes a snapshot of the trends and realities of football across Europe. 

This year’s report shows that crowds at LOI Premier Division games have risen by 20% on 2022 to an aggregate of 587,900. (For summer seasons such as the LOI’s, Uefa’s figures cover 1 January to 31 December 2023.) 

Only the top tiers of Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Romania showed a higher percentage increase in crowds than the LOI. 

This aggregate attendance ranks the LOI 28th among 54 top-flight leagues across Europe. The average attendance was 3,300, which ranks the LOI 25th in Europe. The largest single league attendance figure last year was 8,000 people, which rated 36th in Europe. (This has been comfortably outstripped in 2024 following the opening of the fourth stand at Tallaght Stadium, which has hosted crowds of 10,000 people.) 

Uefa’s research shows that few leagues are so reliant on local head coaches as the LOI: 94% of head coaches in 2023 played in the either the Premier Division or First Division, a higher figure than any other in Europe. It is also a league for young coaches: just 7% of last season’s bosses had at least five previous managerial stints elsewhere. This rated the LOI 52 of 54 leagues. 

The relatively small influence is also evident in playing squads: 26% of total minutes were played by expatriate players, which ranks the LOI 44th on the European table. (Andorra’s league had the highest percentage – 80% – while the Premier League ranked fifth, with 64%.) 

The report estimates the LOI Premier and First Divisions earned a net total of €600,000 in transfer fees last year, which places the leagues 30th across Europe. 

In part recognition of the longer contracts now being handed to players, squad churn was relatively low, with an average of 3.4 inbound players per club. At 49th, this is among the lowest in Europe. 

On a broader level, Uefa’s report found a 7% increase in attendances across Europe, with 229 million fans attending men’s and women’s games. The highest aggregate attendance was recorded in the Premier League, and in proof of England’s remarkable appetite for live football, the second-highest aggregate attendance across Europe was recorded in the Championship. 

Elsewhere, Uefa found that transfer spending across Europe fell by 8% to €6,7 billion, which they attributed largely to the smaller funds spent by clubs in Saudi Arabia. 30% of this spend was committed by just 10 clubs, with Chelsea found to have the highest gross spend of the summer (€261 million.) Brighton were found to have had the highest net spend, at €183 million. 

The average transfer fee for a player coming to the Premier League was reported at €15.6 million. 

The summer 2024 transfer window saw a record 13% proportion of transfer investment directed at teenage players, and the trend in which clubs prioritised younger players is evident in the fact that 53% of all monies were spent on players under the age of 23. 

Looking at the 100 most expensive players of the window, the average age of these players was 23.7. One Irish player appeared among this top 100, believed to be Jake O’Brien’s transfer from Lyon to Everton. 

The full report can be read here. 

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    Mute Ollie Fitzpatrick
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    Sep 12th 2024, 6:50 PM

    Great to see. Now perhaps the FAI give more attention to the L of I than they have since JD took them under his broken wing.

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    Mute Jonny Hellzapoppin
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:23 PM

    @Ollie Fitzpatrick: Exactly. Imagine how good it’d be if the FAI actually bothered to fund it properly and the government gave a band, like they do the GAA, to make the stadia better and more attractive to people who are put off by crumbling old grounds and shytty away ends, as well as some whole stadia, without proper facilities

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    Mute Jonny Hellzapoppin
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:23 PM

    @Jonny Hellzapoppin: *hand

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    Mute zoncolan
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:30 PM

    @Jonny Hellzapoppin: Yeah give them some of the funding that the national rugby team get for never winning a knockout game at the world cup.

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    Mute Joe O'Regan
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:39 PM

    The so called ‘problem child’ should be the golden child.

    You look at nations with similar populations to us like Denmark, Croatia, Scotland and say Belgium with a population of about 11m. It is completely normal for them to have teams in the champions league group stages.

    The Scottish league is very strong from its population size even excluding the big 2. Again it wouldn’t be strange to see Celtic or Rangers in the champions league group stages.

    Quinn and Kerr were calling out for infrastructure funding a couple of years ago. The government probably doesn’t trust the FAI enough yet to cough up the cash. That’s what’s need here.

    What I found interesting as well is that we are currently ranked 27th of the European international teams and could be about to drop. The stats of 28th and 30th out of 54 for certain areas in the report pretty directly align to our fifa ranking versus the other European teams.

    I’ve always felt that the only way back for Irish football is through strengthening the national league. When Munster and Leinster were first playing professionally they only had 500 – 1,000 but it grew quickly when the results were good.

    We’ll never be a top 5 league but we can significantly climb the ladder from where we currently are.

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    Mute Owen ODonoghue
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:45 PM

    @Joe O’Regan: agree 100%. The Govt could incentivize wealthy private individuals to invest in these clubs. Capital Gains from club revenue could be tax free, in addition give substantial tax subsidies for any capital invested into an LOI club. Could also allow multinationals to get additional tax benefits based on local investment in LOI.

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    Mute Joe O'Regan
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    Sep 12th 2024, 8:44 PM

    @Owen ODonoghue: some very clever ideas there Owen. With the premier league now a massive global league and the impact on Brexit stopping our lads heading over before 18, the need to develop our domestic league and infrastructure is even great now.

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    Mute robert kelly
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    Sep 15th 2024, 2:59 AM

    @Joe O’Regan: spot on!!

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    Mute zoncolan
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    Sep 12th 2024, 4:14 PM

    According to some of the people on here no one cares, especially about the likes of Shamrock Rovers. Suppose they”ll all be on here in a minute still harping on about it.

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    Mute John Buckley
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:09 PM

    @zoncolan: yeah, an average 16.5k fans or 1/3 of a % of the country go to a league of Ireland on a weekend. Well done, that is more than no one

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    Mute zoncolan
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    Sep 12th 2024, 7:20 PM

    @John Buckley: Could be worse. I could be going watchin rugby. The only sport that i know were booting the ball over the sideline or up into the stand is classed as a skill.

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    Mute Kevin Dillon
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    Sep 12th 2024, 9:23 PM

    @zoncolan: you’re a dab hand at a 50 22 then. I guess you nail them every time?

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