By Charlie Rhodes.
Millions of football fans in the UK say they are prepared to turn their back on the Premier League if Manchester City escape their ongoing financial investigation without severe punishment.
That’s according to an exclusive YouGov poll commissioned by SportsCasting.
Premier League Could Lose 4.2 Million Viewers If Manchester City Go Unpunished
Of all respondents who said they are interested in football, 14% said they would stop watching the top-flight altogether should Manchester City escape unscathed.
Some 1.87 billion viewers worldwide tune in to watch the Premier League each season, but SportsCasting estimates a viewership of up to 4.2 million in the UK alone could be lost in the aftermath of City’s financial hearing.
Manchester City Could Face Unprecedented Sanctions
In line with the Premier League’s rulings, if Manchester City are found guilty of any of their 115 charges, they will face sanctions.
The severity of which will become clearer as the court hearing progresses – but given the likes of Everton and Nottingham Forest were deducted points for single charges last season – the suggestion is that City could be docked a significant amount of points, or even face expulsion from the Premier League.
Methodology
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 4472 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 19th – 22nd September 2024.
The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
Figures based on Keep Britain Tidy’s own calculations using the ONS population estimates of the mid 2022 Census figures for total persons aged 18 and above, which records 53,646,829 adults 18 and above in the UK.
358 respondents said they would stop watching Premier League football.
This equates to 8% of the total sample base (358/4472 *100)
8% of 53,646,829 adults = 4,291,746.32
The research was carried out using a completely random set of individuals across a wide range of demographics.