Mediaworks Presents… Britain’s Most Loved Football Club

With the Covid-19 restrictions meaning no-one is allowed in stadiums, football fans have been using the next loudest platform to voice and share their opinion as the season kicked off — social media.

Mediaworks can track sentiment across our clients and organisations to understand the feelings and perceptions their audience has on social channels. As we embark on a strange start to the season and with football supporters among the most passionate, Mediaworks has tracked the sentiment analysis of the 104 football clubs based across the UK.

So with the terraces quiet, and the season getting underway, which club holds the affection of fans across the British football pyramid?

What Is Social Sentiment Analysis? 

Social sentiment analysis lets us see whether people are being discussed in a positive or negative way on social media. Mediaworks used AI technology to analyse the most recent 1,000 tweets relating to the 104 football clubs prior to the 2020/21 season starting, based on club-specific hashtags.

What Is The Sentiment Score Based On? 

Sentiment score values the emotion displayed in each tweet and attributes a score to the post, so zero is extremely negative and 100, the maximum, is extremely positive. We compiled a data set to provide a score for each club based on football fans’ feeling towards them.

Before a ball was kicked, we crunched the data and revealed two-time European champions Nottingham Forest as Britain’s most loved club going into the 2020/21 season.With a sentiment score of 74.32 (out of 100), the Championship side topped the charts, with Scottish Premiership side Hamilton Academical and Swindon Town of League Two second and third on 71.37 and 71.06 respectively.

The data presented by Mediaworks above is a sample and does not reflect the views and opinions of Mediaworks, nor is it representative of the entire population. The data presented is subject to third party machine learning algorithms, as well as human interpretation. 

Keep an eye on our regular posts throughout the season to see how the sentiment towards your club changes as performance, transfers, and managerial changes impact our emotions.