BLOG | by YouGov Sport

In these early days of the football season, several elite football clubs are enjoying healthy brand scores, particularity in Italy. Each month, YouGov Sport highlights the football clubs that saw the biggest month-over-month increase in Buzz scores in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France.  

A club’s Buzz score is a net measure based on responses to two questions: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following teams have you heard something positive about?” and “Now which of the following teams have you heard something negative about?”. By calculating the difference between these two scores, we create our Buzz metric. 

In the United Kingdom, Manchester United (+7.1) continue to post big Buzz increases, after they and other clubs suffered big brand hits following the European Super League debacle. Tottenham Hotspur (+3.5), and Liverpool (+3) – both of whom were also caught up in the super league blowback – also made notable gains this month. West Ham United (+2.8) and Everton (+2.7) take the fourth and fifth slot in the UK respectively.  

In Spain, Real Madrid (+8.4) take the top spot on our list of biggest Buzz score increases after posting a 5-1-0 record in the first weeks of the La Liga season. Los Blanco’s performance is ahead of Valencia CF (+6.6), Manchester United (+5.6), Inter Milan (+3.3) and Athletico Madrid (+2.7). A notable absentee, of course, are Spanish giants Barcelona.  

FC Bayern Munchen (+9.9) lead both the Bundesliga standings, and our pack of biggest movers in Germany. In the second slot in both standings are VfL Wolfsburg (+4.8) and rounding out the list in Germany are SC Freiburg (+3.6), Manchester United (+3.4), and Borussia Dortmund (+3.3). 

Following Jerome Boateng’s move from Bayern Munich (+3.3) to Olympique Lyon (+5) in Ligue 1, both clubs saw notable Buzz increases in France. Overall, football clubs saw modest Buzz increases in the country, with Manchester United (+3), RC Lens (+2.6) and AC Milan (+2.6) posting hikes. 

Finally, clubs in Italy saw substantial brand improvement, with Internazionale FC (+11) posting a double-digit Buzz score increase. AC Milan (+9.7). AS Roma (+9.4), Manchester United (+7.8), and SSC Napoli (+6.4) also earned large month-over-month hikes. 

Methodology: YouGov FootballIndex collects data on every major club. Buzz score is based on the questions: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following teams have you heard something positive about?” and “Now which of the following teams have you heard something negative about?” and delivered as a net score between –100 and +100. Scores reported represent the chance between the 30-day daily average between July 24 – Aug. 22, 2021 and Aug. 22 – Sept. 24, 2021. Scores are based on an average daily sample size 560 – 610 in Italy, 2,110 – 2,216 in the UK, 585 – 708 in Spain, 497 –559 in France, and 1,334 – 1,334 in Germany. Daily figures are based on a four-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.