Crowds On The Up

The Football League has recorded its highest set of attendance figures in the modern era. In total, more than 16.4m supporters attended matches during the 2006/07 season - a rise of 1.6% and 250,000 admissions on last season.

Crowds are now at their highest levels since the 1959/60 season (18.1m) and have more than doubled in the last two decades, confirming The Football League's position as the best-attended sporting competition in Europe.

Additionally, total gates in the Coca-Cola Championship have broken the 10m barrier for the first time since 1950/51. Crowds in The League's top division averaged 18,221 fans per match, a rise of 3.5% on 2005/06. The Coca-Cola Championship is the fourth most watched League in Europe with its total audience only bettered by the Premiership, Germany's Bundesliga and Spain's La Liga.

In Coca-Cola Leagues One and Two more than 4.1m and 2.2m supporters, respectively, attended matches. Crowds now average 7,492 in League One and 4,131 in League Two.

In welcoming these figures Football League Chairman Lord Mawhinney said: "It is very encouraging to be able to report that crowds at League matches have risen for the fifth time in six seasons and are now at their highest levels for 47 years.

"These figures underline the tremendous commitment shown by supporters towards their clubs. On behalf of the clubs, I offer my thanks to everyone that has attended matches.

"I am particularly pleased to report that more than 300,000 young supporters took advantage of ticket offers provided under The League's Fans of the Future initiative, which aims to get the next generation of young fans watching live football at their local League club.

"Our challenge now is to find ways to move The League's attendance figures past the 17 million mark."

The League's two showpiece cup competitions also prospered during 2006/07. A 2.6% rise in attendance levels took the Carling Cup's total crowds past the 1.1m mark, whilst the Johnstone's Paint Trophy enjoyed a bumper first year - following a re-launch designed to raise the profile of the competition - with crowds up by 48%.

Once again, The Football League's attendance figures compare favourably with Europe's other major footballing nations. Crowds in the Coca-Cola Championship are more than twice the size of the equivalent competitions in France, Italy and Spain and still comfortably ahead of the 15,957 average gates being recorded in Germany.

Similarly, Coca-Cola League 1 matches are watched by more than three times their Italian and French equivalents and almost twice the number watching the same level of football in Germany, whilst Coca-Cola League Two games are watched by almost three and a half times as many people as those at the same level of Italian football.