BBC RSS subscription league table for English & Scottish football teams

What with the Euro2008 qualification outcome, it is maybe not the best week to be writing about English or Scottish football, but in the process of compiling my lists of the most popular BBC RSS feeds and podcasts in Google Reader, I noticed subscriptions for lots and lots of England and Scotland's football teams. The BBC provides an RSS news feeed for all of the teams in the 4 divisions of each league, including Welsh interlopers Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham, as well as for those in England's top tier of non-league football.

My mild curiosity as to which teams were the most popular turned into rabid enthusiasm to publish this data as a league table once I noticed where my Leeds United were placed. Our audacious bid to drop two divisions in order to win the coveted Johnstone's Paint Trophy may have failed - but at least our support has held up. Leeds United are the only team outside the top flights of England and Scotland to make the top ten in the list.

Of course, there are all sorts of reasons why Google Reader subscriptions are a rubbish measure of popularity - but since they are equally rubbish for all teams, it is a relatively level playing field for the 158 teams who have a news feed available from the BBC. Well, more level than Yeovil's used to be, anyway.

So purely for bragging rights, you can find out which teams have more BBC Sport RSS subscribers in Google Reader. Who has the tech-savvier fanbase? Wednesday or United? Hearts or Hibs? City or Rovers? The Tractor Boys or The Canaries?

Pos.	Team	Subscribers	RSS feed
1.	Liverpool	489
2.	Manchester United	444
3.	Arsenal	332
4.	Tottenham Hotspur	213
5.	Chelsea	178
6.	Leeds United	129
7.	Newcastle United	127
8.	Celtic	104
9.	West Ham United	93
10.	Aston Villa	86
11.	Everton	75
12.	Manchester City	72
13.	Nottingham Forest	72
14.	Rangers	68
15.	Southampton	56
16.	Ipswich Town	48
=17.	Norwich City	45
=17.	Portsmouth	45
=19.	Middlesbrough	42
=19.	Sunderland	42
=21.	Derby County	41
=21.	Leicester City	41
=21.	Sheffield Wednesday	41
=24.	Reading	40
=24.	Watford	40
26.	Crystal Palace	39
=27.	Bolton Wanderers	37
=27.	Coventry City	37
=27.	Wolverhampton Wanderers	37
30.	Blackburn Rovers	35
31.	Brighton	34
32.	Sheffield United	31
=33.	Birmingham City	30
=33.	Cardiff City	30
=33.	QPR	30
36.	West Bromwich Albion	28
=37.	Preston North End	27
=37.	Swansea City	27
=39.	Hull City	26
=39.	Luton Town	26
=41.	Aberdeen	25
=41.	Charlton Athletic	25
=41.	Heart of Midlothian	25
=41.	Stoke City	25
45.	Hibernian	24
46.	Bristol Rovers	23
47.	Fulham	22
=48.	Bristol City	21
=48.	Wigan Athletic	21
50.	Plymouth Argyle	20
=51.	Gillingham	19
=51.	Oxford United	19
=51.	Swindon Town	19
=54.	Bradford City	18
=54.	Leyton Orient	18
=54.	Northampton Town	18
=54.	Southend United	18
=58.	Burnley	17
=58.	Dundee Utd	17
=58.	Hartlepool United	17
=58.	Huddersfield Town	17
=58.	Millwall	17
=58.	Stockport County	17
=58.	Walsall	17
=65.	Barnsley	16
=65.	Blackpool	16
=65.	Exeter City	16
=65.	Grimsby Town	16
=65.	Oldham Athletic	16
=65.	Torquay United	16
=65.	Wrexham	16
=65.	Yeovil Town	16
=73.	Carlisle United	15
=73.	Doncaster Rovers	15
=73.	Dundee	15
=73.	Dunfermline Athletic	15
=73.	Partick Thistle	15
=73.	Peterborough United	15
=73.	Port Vale	15
=73.	Tranmere Rovers	15
=73.	Wycombe Wanderers	15
=73.	York City	15
=83.	Brentford	14
=83.	Colchester United	14
=83.	Dagenham and Redbridge	14
=83.	Milton Keynes	14
=83.	Notts County	14
=83.	Shrewsbury Town	14
=83.	St Mirren	14
=90.	Bournemouth	13
=90.	Crewe Alexandra	13
=90.	East Fife	13
=90.	Falkirk	13
=90.	Hereford United	13
=90.	Lincoln City	13
=90.	Morton	13
=90.	Motherwell	13
=90.	Ross County	13
=90.	Scunthorpe United	13
=90.	Woking	13
=101.	Barnet	12
=101.	Berwick Rangers	12
=101.	Bury	12
=101.	Cheltenham Town	12
=101.	Dumbarton	12
=101.	Hamilton Academical	12
=101.	Livingston	12
=101.	Morecambe	12
=101.	Rotherham United	12
=101.	Rushden and Diamonds	12
=101.	St Johnstone	12
=101.	Stevenage Borough	12
=101.	Stirling Albion	12
=114.	Accrington Stanley	11
=114.	Airdrie United	11
=114.	Aldershot Town	11
=114.	Alloa	11
=114.	Altrincham	11
=114.	Arbroath	11
=114.	Ayr	11
=114.	Brechin City	11
=114.	Burton Albion	11
=114.	Cambridge United	11
=114.	Chesterfield	11
=114.	Clyde	11
=114.	Cowdenbeath	11
=114.	Darlington	11
=114.	East Stirlingshire	11
=114.	Elgin City	11
=114.	Forfar Athletic	11
=114.	Gretna	11
=114.	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	11
=114.	Kilmarnock	11
=114.	Macclesfield Town	11
=114.	Mansfield Town	11
=114.	Montrose	11
=114.	Queen of the South	11
=114.	Queens Park	11
=114.	Raith Rovers	11
=114.	Rochdale	11
=114.	Stenhousemuir	11
=114.	Stranraer	11
=143.	Crawley Town	10
=143.	Ebbsfleet United	10
=143.	Forest Green Rovers	10
=143.	Grays Athletic	10
=143.	Halifax Town	10
=143.	Kidderminster Harriers	10
=149.	Albion Rovers	9
=149.	Chester City	9
=149.	Peterhead	9
152.	Northwich Victoria	7
153.	Weymouth	5
=154.	Salisbury	4
=154.	Stafford Rangers	4
156.	Histon	3
=157.	Droylsden	2
=157.	Farsley Celtic	2

A couple of points of note.

I wonder if Ebbsfleet United will start picking up more subscribers now that they are in the process of being taken over by MyFootballClub? And in the course of the research I found out that the Footymad.net Grimsby Town site has the genius name of "Three Fish On A Shirt" - that made me laugh out loud.

Also, any budding Statto-types out there who have spotted that the numbers might be slightly different for some of the major teams from the ones I published on Wednesday, this is because for this table I have combined the numbers for the UK and International editions for each team where appropriate, rather than treating them as different feeds. That is how Manchester United have climbed above Arsenal.

And I promise, absolutely promise, that I am not going to publish any more bloody lists of stuff on currybetdotnet.

Well, not until the new year at the earliest.

Honest.

Posted by Martin Belam, November 23, 2007    
Read the latest posts about: BBC, Football, Google, RSS
The views expressed on currybetdotnet are my own, and do not reflect the views of Guardian News and Media Limited, or any current or former clients or employers. Read my blogging principles
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