Chelsea, Man City and West Ham among clubs to have ‘exaggerated attendances’ by up to 17,000 a match
PREMIER LEAGUE clubs have been accused of providing incorrect crowd attendances at their matches.
Manchester City, Chelsea and West Ham are among the sides who it has been claimed look like they are exaggerating the number of people watching them in action.
Arsenal have long been mocked for giving out official attendances which were wildly above the genuine number of bums on seats.
And now research by the BBC appears to suggest they are not the only side who have been over-estimating the actual crowd figures in the Premier League.
Freedom of information requests were sent to the police forces and local councils covering all 20 clubs in the top flight asking for the exact figures of those who turned up.
The majority failed to respond, but of those who did it provided information relating to seven clubs in the division.
Average attendances per club
West Ham
Official: 55,309
FoI: 42,779
Difference: 12,530
Man City
Official: 53,274
FoI: 45,792
Difference: 7,482
Southampton
Official: 29,906
FoI: 25,660
Difference: 4,246
Tottenham
Official: 61,843
FoI: 58,103
Difference: 3,740
Chelsea
Official: 40,593
FoI: 37,088
Difference: 3,505
Watford
Official: 20,319
FoI: 17,171
Difference: 2,602
Man Utd
Official: 73,575
FoI: 73,575
Difference: 0
Arsenal were not among them, after a season which often saw the Emirates half full on match-days despite announcing 59,000 attendances.
But West Ham were – and the figures suggest in one match against West Brom the difference between published crowd and actual numbers was 17,523.
The official attendance was 56,888, but Newham Council suggest the real figure was 39,365.
The Hammers were by no means the only club apparently guilty of publishing the wrong numbers, which are recorded as tickets sold rather than actual people to come through the turnstiles.
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3Champions City announced a crowd of 53,407 watched their clash with Southampton, but police figures record a real attendance of 38,130 – a difference of 15,277.
Chelsea's official attendance for the derby match against Tottenham is over 6,000 out on the records held by Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
Spurs themselves were 8,686 out on their official attendance compared to the numbers held by the council for their Wembley clash with Brighton last season.
And there was a discrepancy of almost 7,000 from the crowd announced by Southampton for their local derby with Bournemouth to the total recorded by the local authority.
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