The Barclays Premier League may be the richest league in Europe, but despite the hype it is not the most popular, researchers in Germany have found in a new survey. While English clubs boast of widespread international support, their appeal does not match that of La Liga. English clubs are supported by an estimated 99.2 million people across Europe, while 103.5 million root for those in Spain.

English clubs have a larger domestic fan base, but Spanish clubs pull in far more supporters from outside the country - even though it is the Premier League that wants to play a round of fixtures abroad. Some 86.6 million football fans are drawn to Spanish clubs, compared with 78.8 million for English Clubs. The survey also shows that Chelsea’s European fan base has increased by a factor of five over the past five seasons.

Spain’s dominance is due in large part to the galácticosof Barcelona and Real Madrid, who occupy first and second place as the best-supported clubs. Such is the international pull of Barcelona and Real, and players such as Ronaldinho and Raúl, that both clubs boast more followers than the population of Spain.

Barcelona earn their place at the top of the table, which is based on a survey of more than 9,600 football supporters in 16 European countries by Sport + Markt, the German marketing company, despite being only the second best supported club in Spain behind Real. Manchester United (32.8 million) and Arsenal (22.9 million) make up third and fourth places, while Chelsea (19.7 million) are in seventh and Liverpool (19.4 million) in eighth.

Germany has Europe’s biggest domestic fan base, with 34.3 million, but the Bundesliga’s appeal fails to cross borders; only 13.1 million outside Germany follow German clubs. Italian clubs boast a support of 62.2 million, 38.1 million of whom are outside Italy.

Hartmut Zastrow, the executive director of Sport + Markt, said that the findings reveal that it would be wiser for the Premier League to focus on its doorstep than on developing markets. “It seems more promising to concentrate here than in East Asia, where English, Spanish and Italian leagues already have prominence,” he said.

The research also shows a strong correlation between wealth and support. Eight of Europe’s best-supported clubs are among the ten wealthiest clubs.