Hamburg - The English Premier League has the biggest merchandising potential in Europe with an income of 171 million euros (217 million dollars) in the 2007-08 season, a report released on Wednesday said.

According to the European Football Merchandising Report compiled by the German Sport + Markt agency, the Premier League ranks ahead of Spain's Primera Liga (145 million euros), the German Bundesliga (127), France's Ligue 1 (86), Italy's Serie A (64) and the Dutch Eredivisie (22).

Sport + Markt only looked into the merchandising income of the 116 top flight clubs in the six areas, not at that generated in other markets in Europe or Asia.

It observed that the clubs sold 93.3 per cent of their merchandising products on the domestic market and only 6.7 per cent in the other five areas.

But Spanish giants Barcelona are the most popular club overall as they appear in the top 10 in all six markets.

On average, a team rakes in 5.3 million euros, but the average of the 20 top clubs is in fact 21.2 million euros as the other 96 make only 2 million euros each.

The English income of 171 million euros makes up 7.1 per cent of the total Premier League turnover given at 2.42 billion euros. In Spain, by comparison, merchandising marked 10.6 per cent of the league turnover.

Team shirts are the top seller in the six markets with a total share of 65 per cent. The 20 Premier League clubs sold 5.17 million team shirts, more than double the 2.52 million from second-ranked Spain.

English fans also like cups, Germans scarfs and Spaniards training suits.

English fans spend an average 65.40 euros per year for merchandising, followed by the Dutch (46.50), Spanish (44.90), French (42.60), Germans (35.40) and Italians (23.30).

While women have look discovered football as a pastime, males still make up 74 per cent of the merchandising buyers. In addition, 47 per cent of the women buy fan articles as a gift for males.

Sport + Markt compiled the study after sending questionnaires to all clubs and collecting data from 3,650 fans in the summer.

Looking ahead at higher future merchandising income, the agency told clubs to be more independent from success on the pitch, to target women and new markets in the world but at the same time not to rip off fans. (dpa)