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LONDON – Well, there are a few ways you can do this. You probably know that the Barclays Premier League – that is the highest level of soccer played in England – is by pretty much all measurements the most popular sports league on Planet Earth. Just start with television reach – the Premier League is broadcast in 212 territories, reaching about 4.7 billion people. Yes, that’s BILLION.
But there are countless other measurements that show just how big the Premier League is around the world. Manchester United is worth more than the New York Yankees though Manchester itself has a population slightly smaller than Charlotte, N.C. Tottenham Hotspur, a London team that has never actually won the Premier League as constructed, has fan clubs on all six continents and 20 clubs in the United States with more on the way. Another London team, Arsenal, claims an active worldwide fan base of more than 100 million. Liverpool has a massive fan base in Singapore. Chelsea’s reportedly becoming hugely popular in places like Russia. The reach is simply mind-boggling.