Issued - December 2000

When Ramsey managed England the average house price was about £5,000. Prior to Sven-Goran Eriksson taking over as manager the average price has risen to nearly £81,000. Adjusting for inflation, house prices have risen by 90% over this period.

The proportion of the population owning their own properties has increased from 53% in the seventies to 63% in the eighties and 68% in the nineties. The percentage of income these home owners put towards mortgage payments was around 22% during Ramsey's reign. This increased slightly during the early eighties to 24%, but by the late eighties, following the boom, this had risen to around 46%. When Hoddle had his stint as England manager this proportion had fallen back to the level of the seventies.

Robson, the most successful England Manager?

Bobby Robson, who took England to our best world cup placing, in 1990 (excluding 1966 of course), presided over the whole of the eighties boom. Over this period, house prices rose from £52,500 to £85,000.

However, the largest average annual increase in house prices over the period of a managers England career, was 8½% during the recent Keegan reign. Since Nationwide began sponsoring the England football team, in January 1999, house prices have risen by 15%. The largest falls in real house prices were seen while Don Revie (4 years) and Graham Taylor (3 years) were managing England. In both cases house prices fell an average of 7% per year.

Attendance is on the way back up...

While football popularity has increased recently, attendance at live football matches has fallen over the last three decades. In 1971, average attendance at Football League matches was 14,000, this fell to 9,500 in 1991. Some observers see the reason for this being the introduction of all seated stadia. However, attendance has begun to rise again and in the 1996/97 season, average attendance was 12,000.

Average gate receipts per spectator (includes all football league matches) were £1.10 in 1978/79. This had increased to £9.00 by 1996/97. Furthermore, an away strip cost around £2.00 in 1972, whereas a comparable shirt now costs £40.00. In addition, it has been estimated that footballers' salaries have risen from around £100 per week in the seventies to £10,000 a week in the early nineties. A footballer in the seventies could afford a house costing £17,000. However, in the nineties he could have bought a property worth £1.7 million.

Numbers of armchair supporters are increasing too...

More and more are tuning in to watch football on TV - over 23 million viewers watched England lose to Germany in the semi-finals of Euro '96. At this time 2.5% of income was spent on audio-visual equipment such as TVs and Hi-Fi. However, when Ramsey was the England manager, only 0.5% of income was spent on these goods.

Leisure spending on the whole is up... It's not only TVs and stereos, more is being spent on leisure goods and services in general. In the nineties 4% of income was spent on travel abroad, compared with just 1.5% in the seventies. However, spending on food has fallen from 17% to 10% of income. This represents higher income levels rather than less spending on food. In addition, less is spent on alcohol and smoking - this fits with the healthier lifestyles we now lead.

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