Football savers are top of the league

With the start of the new football season around the corner, Britannia Building Society has been looking at which fans are in the first division when it comes to their savings habits.

80,000 loyal football fans hold Save and Support accounts with Britannia - almost enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium. Between them they have invested more than £356million in the 12 accounts Britannia offers.

Britannia's figures show that fans of Ipswich Town are at the top of the league when it comes to account numbers, with more than 18,000 loyal fans holding Save and Support accounts.

However, when it comes to balances, it's Stoke City fans who are the winners. They may have fewer accounts than Ipswich Town, but their balances are top of the table.

Tim Franklin, Managing Director of Member Business at Britannia, said: "You may expect the bigger Premiership clubs to have the most number of accounts, simply because they have such huge fan bases, but our figures show that it's the fans of the smaller clubs who are the most loyal when it comes to saving."

Britannia's figures also showed that junior fans of Arsenal, Bristol Rovers, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham are better savers than their parents, with each club holding more Junior Save and Support accounts than adult ones.

Tim added, "The fact that more than a quarter of Save and Support accounts are held by children and several clubs have more junior Save and Support accounts than adult ones, is a positive sign as it shows that youngsters already have good savings habits.

"Save and Support accounts are a great way to encourage youngsters to save as they can support their favourite team at the same time as saving for their future."

As well as saving for their own futures, fans are also helping the future of their favourite team. Each year Britannia returns a bonus to the clubs, based on the average daily balances of the savings accounts - last season, the thirteen clubs netted a total of £3.5 m from Britannia.