Football fans go into extra time for the new season

The kick-off to a new football season means fans will be wondering where all their time has gone – and they’ll need an average of 15.3 hours a week, according to new research from Virgin Money.

That’s the average time they spend following the game and it’s not just 90 minutes on a Saturday. There’s all the extra hours racked up travelling to and from the match, watching TV, searching the internet and talking about the game with friends. That all adds up to 15.3 hours a week on average or 795.6 hours a year – 33 full days spent just being a fan.

And that’s only the average – around 12 per cent of fans admit to spending more than 30 hours a week on football with a dedicated (or obsessive) 8% spending more than 40 hours a week on the game. That is the equivalent to another working week on top of their job.

Fans of newly-promoted Burnley are the most dedicated in the Premiership putting in an average 18.1 hours a week just edging out Spurs fans on 17.9 hours a week while supporters of Sunderland, West Ham and Portsmouth are a bit more relaxed with just 14.7 hours and 14.6 hours a week.

Grant Bather, spokesman for Virgin Money, said: “It’s only 90 minutes on the day for the players but for the fans it’s a lot more than just a game.

“Putting in 15.3 hours a week equates to two working days following the game and that’s just the average. Some supporters are putting in a week at work and then effectively another week following football – which begs the question how much time is spent talking football at work.

“Dedicated fans invest a lot of money into the game and now we know they also invest a lot of time as well. It may be only a game but it certainly takes up a lot of time and effort.”

Virgin Money’s Football Fans’ Inflation Index, which has tracked the cost of being a fan since January 2006, shows costs for fans have risen 15.1 per cent year-on-year and by 29.6 per cent compared to when the index launched in October 2006.

Not all fans are total obsessives though – a relaxed 4% say they spend just three hours a week following the game.

Virgin Money’s Football Fans’ Price Index shows that in the past two and a half years the cost of attending games has risen by 29.6 per cent. The index is aimed at helping supporters keep track of the rises and falls in the costs of supporting their team. The company identified the match day essentials fans buy and keeps tabs on increases and decreases.

At the launch of the index in January 2006, the match day basket of goods cost £77.95. However the most recent analysis puts the cost at £101.02 – a rise of £23.07. Virgin Money’s Football Fans’ Prices Index runs every three months and the firm’s research team examines the cost of items such as a gallon of petrol, match tickets food, alcohol, train tickets and replica shirts.