Aston Villa, Leeds United, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday have all been cited by Real Zaragoza as the Spanish club celebrates hitting 27,000 season tickets sales for the current season.
A grand old name in Spanish football, Real Zaragoza have won six Copa del Reys, along with the UEFA Cup. Fallen on harder times, they clearly see an affinity with big clubs in the Championship.
For those named (Leeds, Aston Villa, the Sheffield clubs), it’s explained ‘There are clubs with a long football tradition that tend to have an excellent atmosphere’.
What separates the English and Spanish is that there’s also a lot of single ticket sales and a large number of away fans. Another, unmentioned, difference is that season tickets are much cheaper in Spain so they’re sometimes purchased without the intention to go to each match, therefore Zaragoza’s attendances will be less than their season ticket sales.
Leeds United, at the top of the league under Marcelo Bielsa and looking for promotion to the Premier League, have an average attendance of 33,154 this season, according to Word Football statistics.
Aston Villa, down in unlucky 13th with Steve Bruce, have 32,262. Sheffield United have 24,383, and their rivals Sheffield Wednesday 23.042.
Over in Germany, where the matches are again cheaper, Bundesliga 2’s Hamburg have a mightily impressive 48,507 average, and FC Koln 47,725.
