Friday 15 August 2014 13:29, UK
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that more than 170,000 people bought tickets but did not show up to Arsenal games at the Emirates Stadium last season.
The figures were obtained by the Arsenal blog “A is for Arsenal” from the Metropolitan Police.
Arsenal’s official attendance figures are based on tickets sold, instead of the number of people who turn up to the stadium.
On average, the actual attendance per game was 5,998 lower than the official attendance stated by club.
The lowest attendance for a game last season was against Fenerbahce with a crowd of 56,271, but according to the Metropolitan Police there were only 44,779 people at the game.
The highest attendance was against Liverpool on November 2nd, 2013 when the official figure was 60,161, but there were only 57,341 fans at the Emirates that day.
The majority of other Premier League clubs are also believed to base their attendance figures on tickets sold, and not by the actual attendance.
One club whose official attendance figures are based on real people is Tottenham. The highest attendance at White Hart Lane last season was 36,284 in the Europa League game against Dnipro, the same number that was recorded.
