Few teams in world football have the international fanbase that Liverpool FC can boast. In Premier League terms, only Manchester United has more across the globe. It can be difficult to accurately estimate how many LFC fans there are globally; most estimates put the figure at around 200 million.
We’re going to look at how important this is from a commercial perspective and how it impacts every element of the club, from local supporters to how the club operates at a board level when deciding which manager to bring in and which players to sign.
This year, we’re going to see the return of the greatest football spectacle on Earth – the FIFA World Cup, in which Liverpool will have several first-team regulars playing. Commercially speaking, having a strong club presence at the tournament helps bring in more international fans.
The 2026 World Cup marks the first time that 48 teams will participate in the competition. While this gives more players the chance to compete in front of a global audience that no other sporting event will reach, it is important from a commercial perspective that some of the key LFC players – such as Florian Wirtz, Mo Salah and Alexis Mac Allister – are firing on all cylinders.
With more teams and a record number of matches on the schedule, the 2026 World Cup is also expected to drive unprecedented engagement in the sports betting markets, as fans worldwide look to back their favourite superstars in every fixture. This surge in global interest not only boosts the club’s visibility but also heightens the stakes for every goal scored and every clean sheet kept by a Liverpool player on the world stage.
It is this high-stakes environment which makes the performance of the club’s established leaders so vital. For instance, many Reds will be watching the Netherlands defence closely, hoping that their captain Virgil Van Dijk can put in a good showing at what will likely be his last World Cup.
Nations like Egypt, which have a talisman in Salah, have cultivated an enormous LFC fanbase solely because of his success with millions of new fans, many of whom travel to Liverpool on a matchday. Although this relationship was briefly fractured following the issues Salah had earlier in the season, there’s no denying that bringing in international superstars – especially those who can fire the Reds to Champions League and Premier League glory – has a profound impact both on the pitch and off it.
When Sky transformed English football in 1992, it set off a chain reaction which made the Premier League the most expensive, most-watched and highest-rated in the world. At the spearhead of this transformation were the big clubs in English football, most notably Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.
However, as the 21st century came and went, other teams soughts to crash this party, some with greater success than others. Three previous Premier League clubs have found themselves in the second tier since the mid-90s, while others like Arsenal have gone more than 20 years without a top-flight title, although that could change in the next few weeks.
Partly because of the exposure stemming from Sky and the shift in sports media toward an international audience, Anfield is now a global tourist attraction. It is the number one-rated attraction in Liverpool on TripAdvisor, surpassing the likes of The Beatles Story, and you only have to take a walk around the area on a matchday to get a true flavour of the cultural melting pot of the LFC fanbase.
You can hear Danish, Hindi, scores of Irish, Japanese, and people from all over England. It is this global appeal which brings tens of millions of pounds into the city every season, and until you travel the world and see how many people support the club, it is actually quite difficult to get a true grasp on how many international Reds fans there are.
When a sports product becomes as globally successful as the Premier League, it goes without saying that the teams who win it stand to bring in millions of new global fans. Maybe these don’t have quite the same connection to the city that locals do, but the game is bigger than that now.
Back in the mid-20th century, football clubs were an extension of their community and deeply entwined with their roots, but with the majority of Premier League clubs now owned by billionaires, it’s a case of moving with the times or risk becoming irrelevant, as many giants of the English game have.
Without international recognition and a large global fanbase, the commercial return is much smaller. It lowers ticket prices; teams receive less TV and broadcast revenue, and merchandise sales (e.g. replica shirts) decline significantly.
Jürgen Klopp brought back the glory days for Liverpool, securing their first league title in 30 years and a coveted Champions League trophy, and that success grew the club’s international fanbase.
Combining all of this, some clubs face losing tens of millions per year if they find themselves outside the top 6 for a few years or languishing in the relegation zone.
Although Liverpool are not in any imminent danger of the drop, it is crucial that their success matches the club’s global appeal. A healthy global fanbase reflects a winning team on the pitch and shows that LFC is operating as it should at multiple levels.
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