Barcelona: The most popular football club in Europe.

FC Barcelona, the impressive leader of the Spanish Championship, is the most popular club in Europe with 44.2 million supporters, said a study of the Sport + Market published on Wednesday.

•     Barça ahead of his Spanish rival, Real Madrid, which the study attributes 41 million fans and Manchester United, winner of the Champions League in 2008 (37.6 M).
  
      The Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg winner of the UEFA Cup in 2008, pointing to a surprising 5th place with 23.9 million supporters, before the clubs of European football such as Arsenal (7th, 21.3 M) , AC Milan (8th, 21 M), Bayern Munich (9th, 19.8 M) and Juventus Turin (10th, 17.5 M).
  
      French side, the Olympic of Lyon occupies the 13th place (9.4 million), just before Marseille (9.4 million).
  
      The beautiful adventure of Hoffenheim who, six months after its accession in the top, and leader of the Championship of Germany, has not been unnoticed and was about to occupy the 39th place ranking with a European progression over one year ... 1352%.
  
      The study was conducted among 9600 football fans in sixteen European countries.
• Ennaharonline/ afp