Based on amount of fans.

Guys, the data mining process is very complicated, there are several organization who has access to site, database, surveys, forum, registered fan clubs etc... Their rule engines and crawlers have very sophisticated algorithm to calculate and estimate data. Every calculation might have been validated in contrast to previous year's collected data in (in different scale, time span). The validation process before publishing those data is another huge process. The final statistic might not be absolutely correct, but to some extent, the range might be different from time to time but it's quite sufficient . This is from my own guess and experience based on my field of work, just to add up to the discussion.

I was not surprised man u were 1st. So many foreign glory hunters in their team. The only reason they support man u is their dominance in the most competitive league. Most these glory hunters are Asian/ African people from London and people who just support man for their success. Most man u fans are disappearing which shows man u were all glory hunters and all just start supporting united for their history and cups. No need to argue its the truth.

@Fru_Toot, although there's some truth in what you're saying, the same can be said about Man City in recent times, as well mostly all of the clubs on that list. Let's not be hypocritical here.

@ikoiko, yes i acknowledge that city has glory hunters, but they wont even match man united in glory hunters. If united gets back to successful ways those people who left united will re-support their team cos of success. Its the most successful team in England and the most watched league in the world so there are gonna be glory hunters but united fans are the worst, they cannot stick with their teams in bad times its just frickin 8 months and asking Moyes to leave. Look at Arsenal, they havent been so successful but stuck through their team thick and thin, also Liverpool they havnt had the best years since 2006 but supported their team. United fans cannot even take banter while their team was mocking other teams so its a nice time to mock them after all those years of mockery. Thats why united is the most hated team in England

@Fru_Troot

and assuming you are not one of these "Glory hunters" when I've clearly never seen you around before City's rise in the PL, in this site? Let's see how long you'll last until City will start to lose their balance.

And I assume that you are a Londoner, since you know so much about the racial fanbase statistics in England's football (clearly a sign of paranoia if you ask me), doesn't that make you a glory hunter as well since you're supporting a club outside your hometown?

@Fru_Toot, one cannot generalize either. Dozens of Arsenal supporters were calling for Wenger's head not too long ago. This is football. You cannot compare one fan with the other. At the end of the day they're just people supporting one club for whatever reason. Everything you are saying can be related to mostly any other successful club. Again, you cannot condemn a whole fan base because of a particular set of fans. Some are true, some aren't. That's the way it will always be. United is mostly hated because they are successful. Fact. Only hated by rival fans. Why does United have so much appeal to the masses? Because they have won everything. Those calling for Moyes' head are only doing so because they are used to winning, I'll give you that, but again, to generalize a whole fan base is plain ignorant.

In my opinion, it is not Moyes' fault that United are sitting where they are on the table. In fact, it's not such a bad position. Van Persie basically won the league for United last season. The rest of the team was never that impressive. Moyes was handed a sinking ship and was expected to make it float. Sorry to say but the fact that Moyes is trying to rebuild United is the best thing he can do at the moment. The only person who could achieve what was achieved last season with United is SAF. The PL is downright tough! They're still top 10, with a new manager and a squad in transition. Nuff said.

@Heinsinburg, nope ive always supported city and I live5 mins away from the etihad. Im not saying all man u fans are glory hunters but when.I ask.people what team do you support they say man united and i say why and they said they barely watch football. That shows that they supporr man united because thats the only team they heard of because of their success. Thats enough to tell me they support united just cos of success and popularity and that is most united fans. Without all that success united wont even have around 10M fans.

How did they calculate the amount of fans??? dont get it!

@Fru_Toot,

Amazingly unlikely that you live "5 minutes away from Etihad", please provide me a fully detailed photo (with you in it) and that'll convince me, other wise, tell the truth. And to say that the people you've only support "Manchester United" because "they don't watch football" in MANCHESTER, England (where you live in) or just in England in general is an incredibly stupid thing to say.

Just so you know, I have a friend living in London, England, who once visited Manchester for 6 months for professional reasons, and the one thing he kept bragging to me about while he was there was how ridiculous sports, and football in particular, is in that city - not only because of the rivalry between City and United, but also the Premier League in general. What you basically told me is something a total liar would say, not to mention that you are the FIRST member EVER to say that he lives "5 minutes away from Etihad". Now that you've said that, you're going to get a lot of attention from many FRers, and you better have some Manchester balls to prove it.

Did you even ask the question, why United has so many fans? Just as a fact: 100 million of these fans are plastic fans who don't know shit about the hisotry of United. Those fans come a lot from Africa or southern asia.

@"expert" football11,

that's true in some sense, but that doesn't give them right NOT to do so. I mean, how the hell did an American such as yourself start supporting Real Madrid in the first place? Think before you speak.