Football tourism is usually seen at Premier League stadiums like Old Trafford, Anfield and the Emirates, so fans of Harborough Town, who compete in the seventh tier of the football pyramid, were stunned when 100 Spaniards arrived at Bowden Park to watch them take on St Ives Town.
The Spanish fans, who turned up last Saturday, were subscribers to a Spanish YouTube channel, La Media Inglesa (LMI), focused on English football, which has now started arranging overseas trips for its followers.
“Some of the local fans were quite surprised, probably wondering what 100 Spaniards were doing there,” said Alvaro Sanz, a Harborough Town fan from Madrid.
According to the marketing agency Two Circles, 80.2 million fans attended professional sports in the UK in 2023, with football making up 33% of the total. Premier League matches accounted for 20% (15.8 million) of all sports attendances.
Ilie Oleart, from Barcelona, founded LMI, which has covered football matches in England for Spanish-speaking fans around the world since 2011. The channel has attracted nearly half a million subscribers, and in 2018 began offering trips to the UK so fans could experience the English game.
Oleart, who supports the Catalan club RCD Espanyol, which plays in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football, said he aspired to not only arrange trips but to be involved in a club in a more meaningful way.
“Our aim was to transform a small local English club into a small local club with a global fanbase,” he said.
Harborough Town FC, nicknamed the Bees, emerged as the fans’ choice after Oleart consulted his subscriber base. LMI has brought its subscribers along to watch matches at the grounds of Brighton and Hove Albion, Sheffield United and Wycombe Wanderers.
“I met people at the club in September to get to know their history, the town and the facilities,” said Oleart. “We thought they were the perfect club with the right values to share with our audience.”
Football matches at Harborough Town, which take place in the Southern League Premier Division Central , will now feature live on the LMI Youtube channel, allowing Spanish speakers an opportunity to become “virtual supporters” of the club.
The Bees chairman, Peter Dougan, said the partnership with LMI was an “opportunity to grow our fanbase and our income” through a global audience and could open the door to sponsorship deals.
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“It was being in the right place at the right time,” he said. “LMI liked what they saw and we decided they were right for our club too.”
Harborough were defeated by St Ives Town by two goals to one, but the result didn’t dampen the spirits of Oleart’s group, who were “very happy” with their experience.
“It wasn’t just any club anymore, it felt like our club,” said Oleart.
