2 in 3 UK football fans will watch from the pub

In the UK over two-thirds of football fans (68 per cent) will do their cheering from the pubs rather than the terraces this season and a quarter of them will do so at least once a month.

These are the key results from an independent survey of 2,000 sports fans in the UK commissioned by Molson Coors of which 565 were soccer fans.

The survey also found that one in three football fans (32 per cent) go to the pub just to watch sport and 23 per cent of these do so once a week.

Some 64 per cent of respondents drink beer and consume more than three drinks per visit with one quarter of them taking their wives or girlfriends along.

The research also discovered that rugby union supporters are the biggest fans of the pub with 70 per cent going there and 70 per cent of these drinking beer when there. These supporters consume an average of three drinks per visit and over one quarter (28 per cent) also take along their wives or girlfriends.

But it’s rugby league that seems to be of most significance to the pub with 34 per cent of rugby league fans watching the sport in the pub more than once a week and 11 per cent watching it in the pub every day. Nearly nine in 10 of them (88 per cent) drink beer and they drink around two-and-a-half pints there on average.

Interestingly, 16 per cent go down to the pub with their mother while 68 per cent take a ‘significant other’ along.