MANCHESTER UNITED fans often boast of treating their support as a religious belief – and it turns out they might be right.
The Red Devils are one of world sport’s biggest clubs, boasting loyal followers from all over the globe.
And according to manager director Richard Arnold, the club’s level of engagement on social media ‘is akin to religion’.
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Speaking at Web Summit 2016 in Lisbon, Arnold explained United have a bigger presence online than superstar celebrities including Justin Bieber.
He said: “The level we are engaging at, to put it in context, is akin to religion. John Lennon was famously quoted as saying The Beatles were ‘bigger than Jesus’.
“Whilst we wouldn’t want to be disrespectful in that way, what you are seeing from a measurement point of view is that the level of engagement and fervour we get is on par with the world’s major religions and those are the only things at the same level as Manchester United in terms of that interaction and engagement.”
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Arnold also revealed the club will be releasing an app soon while claiming the ‘Pogback’ campaign was far more successful than Gareth Bale’s unveiling at Real Madrid and Barcelona’s capture of Luis Suarez.
Explaining that United have 659million followers online, he added: “That’s like two Americas that love the same team. [We’re] a really key part of modern popular culture around the world.
“We just had our billionth interaction on Facebook. That’s incredibly valuable because it allows us to gauge what fans like and allows us to adjust our behaviour going forward.
“We are on a different scale to other clubs in our league. We are also the biggest in the world at what we do across any sport and any team. Sport is one of the most engaging things in the world. Within that we are the most engaged.”
Major religions
Christianity 1.2billion
Islam 1.3bn
Hinduism 900m
MANCHESTER UNITED 659M
Buddhism 376m
Sikhism 23m
Judaism 14m
Jedis 10,000*
(*Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...)
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