in the US, the 10 most supported european clubs are likely some order of AJAX, celtic, manU, liverpool, arsenal, real madrid, bayern, milan, west ham and lazio or juve
There I stand quite corrected - my fault on that. Liverpool does get quite a mention. Nevertheless, when talking about 'big' clubs and all that, Celtic and Rangers most likely have pathetic UEFA coefficients. Nevertheless they are 'big' clubs here in North America - for example when Celtic played Roma in an exhibition game this summer in the Skydome, the 53000 tickets were sold out 4 months in advance. When Liverpool played 2 days later, these tickets were also sold out. If PSV were playing, they wouldn't sell out. Also, look at the estimated financial worth of some of these clubs - you will see that PSV is worth less than Ajax, and you will also see (suprisingly, perhaps) that Tottenham FC, Rangers FC and Celtic are in the top. Again, another measure of being a 'big' club. In summary: being a 'big' club does not necessarily mean that you have to be a good club on the pitch. The size of a club (at least in my eyes) is dictated by the size of the following worldwide, and to a lesser extent, the perceived valuation of the club.
how do u know it sold out because it was celtic or because it was a roma match? I'm sure PSV match would have sold out if they played against the same opponent. and i still have a hard time believing celtic and rangers are the two of the most popular teams in the US, and as bludaddy said, they are the the two of the three most popular teams in the US. so you're going to start saying money and commerciazlization is what matters? it is quite easy to make your club big then.. you just have to put a lot of money into advertising.
Toronto has a large amount of 1st and 2nd generation Scots. Every suburb and within the city itself seems to have a Celtic supporter's club and a Rangers supporter's club. The game against the GialloRosso drew mainly from the Scottish group. Granted there was an Italian contingent, but I assume that they were there more to see Totti than Roma - the big clubs supported in Woodbridge and on College Street (the heavy Italian communities) are Juventus (big surprise) and AC Milan.
This thread is great, it's fun to see the exact same agruments here that happen with rival clubs all over the world regardless of the sport. As an impartial observer I'll throw my 2 cents in, who has the most trophies? In American we call that type of smack, scoreboard. I mean, titles are what it's all about right?, you really can't agrue against success or history. So which Dutch club has the best history?(off hand I don't know the exact numbers, but I have a really good idea).
not even close... AJAX - 29 dutch titles, 4 champions leage, 1 uefa cup, 1 cup winners cup, 15 dutch cups, 3 european super cups, 2 world club cups psv - 17 dutch titles, 1 champions league, 1 uefa cup, 7 dutch cups
Quite lovely stats, I could look at it all day. But I'll have to go against fellow Ajax fans to say that PSV is the dominant club at the moment, for the past three to four months.. Ajax just don't have the consistency nor do I believe the maturity to go to where they ought to reach. Maybe when we get players during the winter break. But to say that PSV is greater than Ajax in their history? I won't even bother replying to that...
of course, AJAX are inferior to psv right now - i thought they were arguing who was a "big club" and who was not
Actually out here in america, theres a shop that has its own PSV section. No Ajax section. Its in rochester, MN. ever heard of that?? doubt it. Theres a PSV fanclub here in Minnesota. Thats more than can be said for Ajax here.
I know this isnt a very well known fact, but Canada and America arent all that similar. Look at our Int'l team. Black guys, White guys, hispanics. America is a little more diverse, according to my aunt who lives in fernie, British Columbia
Your aunt smokes crack then - or she has never set foot in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, BC for that matter.
Thank-you! Someone who finally understands that UEFA coefficient rankings are not the be-all, end-all of what constitutes a 'big' club!