121k Irish travel to watch football matches in Britain

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Last year Irish fans travelled in their droves to Britain to watch football, according to new research carried out on behalf of VisitBritain.

121,000 Irish people made the trip across the water to take in a match, making up 15% of the 800,000 total visitors to Britain who gave sport as their primary reason for travelling.

Norway took the runner-up spot with 93,000 visitors, while Sweden was third with 58,000.

Almost three quarters (73%) of visitors who gave their primary journey purpose as watching sport said they had attended a football match.

North-west England was the region that received the highest proportion of football-driven visits, with one in 10 tourists in the area going to a game.

This was followed by one in 20 in the North East and one in 40 in Wales.

Manchester United’s Old Trafford and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium were the most popular venues, both receiving 109,000 international visits.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore welcomed the report.

“The Premier League is proud of its role.” Scudamore said.

“There are 1.2 billion people across the globe who are fans of the league and we want to engage with as many of them as possible.”

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