European Club Matches. Record Attendances.

[FredFlintsone]

LOL. This is what you end up doing during lock-down.  

I've always been fascinated by the enormous attendances Scottish football has housed, mainly at Hampden, over the decades so Ive spent some hours on google and here's my list of top attendances involving club sides in Europe. I've found 14 over 129,000.  11 were at Hampden, 2 at the Bernabeu and 1 at the Estadio da Luz. Im fairly confident in the accuracy of this list mainly because there are only a handful of stadiums that historically have been capable of holding over 120,000. Note historions tend to treat attendances ending in 3 zeros with a high degree of scepticism! 

1) 147,365 Celtic 2 Aberdeen 1. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1937.  
2) 143,570 Hibernian 0 Rangers 1. Scottish Cup Semi-Final. Hampden 1948. 
3) 136,505 Celtic 2 Leeds United 1. European Cup Semi-Final. Hampden 1970.
4) 136,274 Motherwell 4 Dundee 0. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1952.
5) 135,000 Benfica 3 Porto 1. Portuguese League Decider. Estadio da Luz 1987.
6) 133,750 Rangers 1 Morton 0. Scottish Cup Final replay. Hampden 1948.
7) 132,840 Hearts 3 Celtic 1. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1956.
8) 132,000 Celtic 4 Rangers 0. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1969.
9) 131,943 Celtic 1 Motherwell 0. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1951.
10) 130,060 Celtic 2 Aberdeen. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1954.
11) 130,000 Real Madrid 0 Juventus 1. European Cup Quarter-Final. Bernabeu 1962.
12) 129,761 Rangers 1 Aberdeen 1. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1953.
13) 129,690 Real Madrid 4 AC Milan 3. European Cup Semi-Final. Bernabeu 1956.
14) 129,643 Rangers 1 Celtic 1. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1963.

 

I believe only some Rio de Janeiro derbies at the Maracana have topped the 147,365 that watched Celtic v Aberdeen in 1937.

[FredFlintsone]

Missed one. It's the first match of the 1948 Scottish Cup Final. (the replay is number 6 above)

15) 129,643 Rangers 1 Morton 1. Scottish Cup Final. Hampden 1948.

Edited November 29, 2020 by FredFlintsone

[Ron Aldo]

It's mad to think that there was once over 136,000 fans at a Motherwell v Dundee game.

[NorthernLights]

1 hour ago, Ron Aldo said:

It's mad to think that there was once over 136,000 fans at a Motherwell v Dundee game.

That same year the Scottish Junior Cup final between Kilbirnie and Cameron had an attendance of just under 70,000.

[HibeeJibee]

1 hour ago, Ron Aldo said:

It's mad to think that there was once over 136,000 fans at a Motherwell v Dundee game.

 

20 minutes ago, NorthernLights said:

That same year the Scottish Junior Cup final between Kilbirnie and Cameron had an attendance of just under 70,000.

Of course in those days neutrals flocked to cup finals.

FA Amateur Cup drew 90k-100k during 1950s, IIRC.

 

On 15/07/2020 at 21:43, FredFlintsone said:

I believe only some Rio de Janeiro derbies at the Maracana have topped the 147,365 that watched Celtic v Aberdeen in 1937.

If we trust Wikipedia just 2: Flamengo v Santos in 1980 and Flamengo v Mineiro in 1983:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campeonato_Brasileiro_Série_A_attendance

Surprisingly only 3 games in Copa Libertadores have ever gone over 100k:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Libertadores_records_and_statistics#Stadiums

Brazilian Cup didn't start until 1989 and wasn't entered by clubs in continental competition during 2000s. Probably nothing there.

However there'll be biggies among regional leagues + cups:

e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Campeonato_Carioca#Finals

Edited November 29, 2020 by HibeeJibee

[FredFlintsone]

3 hours ago, Ron Aldo said:

It's mad to think that there was once over 136,000 fans at a Motherwell v Dundee game.

Yep. I think that's the most amazing attendance of them all.  I was reading up on this match. Scottish Cup finals were usually all-ticket at this time  and  Hampden's capacity was 135,000. The authorities thought there was no way Hampden would be full so it was pay at the gate. As 3pm approached they realised the stadium would actually be full and they had to lock the gates. There was even a train from Dundee that had to be turned back.

[FredFlintsone]

On 29/11/2020 at 13:25, HibeeJibee said:

If we trust Wikipedia just 2: Flamengo v Santos in 1980 and Flamengo v Mineiro in 1983:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campeonato_Brasileiro_Série_A_attendance

Surprisingly only 3 games in Copa Libertadores have ever gone over 100k:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Libertadores_records_and_statistics#Stadiums

This contradicts the above info.

Fla–Flu - Wikipedia

1. Flamengo - Fluminense 0–0, 194,603 (177.656 paid), December 12, 1963.
2. Flamengo - Fluminense 2–3, 171,599, June 15, 1969.
3. Flamengo - Fluminense 0–0, 155,116, May 16, 1976.
4. Flamengo - Fluminense 0–1, 153,520, December 16, 1984.

[FredFlintsone]

Missed one.

135,000. Aberdeen 3 Rangers 2. Scottish Southern League Cup Final 1946 at Hampden.

[The Mantis]

This got me wondering how many games I had seen with a >100k crowd (4, all between 1970 and 1973).

It seems the last Hampden International with a 6 figure crowd was Scotland v England in 1972 (119325).The last ever game with a 6 figure crowd was the Centenary final of 1973, Rangers v Celtic, 122714. Cup final crowds took a nosedive to 76000 the year after and never really recovered.

[Merkie84]

I have always wondered how big crowds at more modern games could be I hampden still had that capacity. 
 

With easier and cheaper transport and people more willing now to travel for games, surely some relatively recent games could have topped those attendances? 
 

For instance , Scotland v England in the 1999 Playoff for the Euros the following year was an enormous occasion and tickets were like gold dust. 

Similarly Scotland vs the likes of Italy, Netherlands, Spain or France were each massive games. 
 

The 2002 champions league final I believe each teams fans were only allocated about 7,500 tickets with the rest going to sponsors etc

Both those clubs could easily have taken 50,000+ to the final and plenty of neutrals would have wanted to see the galacticos and a champions league final played in Scotland.

I believe this possibly could have had a bigger crowd than 1960 if hampden was big enough