From Oslo and Brisbane to Manchester and Merseyside: the north-west derbies go global

It is, as Dag Langerød says, “a massive day” – Manchester United versus Manchester City, with Liverpool against Everton as an aperitif. Two derbies, major events in a footballing calendar, have fallen on the same day, throwing an unusually intense spotlight on the north-west of England.

This corner of the British Isles has the Lake District, Antony Gormley’s statues in the sea and, in Coronation Street, perhaps the most famous soap opera in the world. But in the era of a globalised TV audience for sport, this is a weekend to illustrate the depth and reach of England’s most successful footballing region.

The world is descending on Manchester and Merseyside to watch Britain’s biggest tourism export live. Langerød has made the journey from Oslo to Manchester with about 2,000 others – and those are just the United supporters.

“It’s the game of the season,” he said. “Ten years ago when Liverpool were our biggest rivals I wouldn’t have said that. But now City are the best team and it’s the hugest game it’s possible to get. They are eight points ahead of us – this could make all the difference.”

Football is a bigger driver of tourism to the north-west than almost anything else. Nearly 11% of visits to north-west England include a live match, according to Visit Britain – nearly twice as many as the next nearest region, the north-east, and 10 times as many as London.

The UK’s official tourism body conducted a study in 2015 that showed more than 800,000 international visitors went to a Premier League match, spending £684m. Of these, 109,000 went to Old Trafford and 99,000 to Anfield.

Most tourists arrive from Ireland, Norway, Sweden, US and the Netherlands. “The supporters’ club has 500 season tickets,” Langerød said, “so we have about 10,000 people coming through the season.” He has been five or six times since the season began in August. People travelling with him paid about £700 for flights, tickets and accommodation, while the thousands of others travelling independently probably spent at least £1,000.

City fan Jesse Brown and his brother-in-law Mikka have spent a lot more than that. The pair have travelled from Brisbane for a City-themed holiday of a lifetime, taking in five games, including a trip to Ukraine for a Champions League match earlier in the week.

“Watching a Manchester derby in the away fans’ section is something we have dreamed about,” Brown said. “For a Blues fan, watching City thrash United in a derby at 3am in a pub is what dreams are made of. But actually being at the game, that’s a whole new level.”

The trip has set them back at least £2,500 each, Brown said. “After watching United beat us for years, the quality of football that City are playing now convinced us that witnessing a derby was worth the thousands of dollars.”

The same calculation was made by a group of 20 Chinese supporters,who are making a 10,000-mile round trip from Beijing to Old Trafford, according to Thomas Cook Sport, which says it has also seen a 1,000% increase in bookings from Scandinavian countries. Heavy snow is predicted across the north-west on Sunday, but the matches are expected to go ahead.

However, others say there are signs that numbers may be falling, according to James Cuttica, the managing director of Interopa, a specialist company that creates packages for foreign tourists.

“Even though the pound has been weaker, we have started to notice a decline in overseas visitors,” he said, adding that other official resellers had told him they were also seeing a downturn. “Matches such as the north-west derbies this weekend used to always sell out well in advance. I know of agents with stock remaining and offering at greatly reduced rates by comparison to what these matches would normally command.”

Part of the reason is that fans can get tickets from unofficial resellers online, Cuttica said, but also because Interopa can only buy seats as part of very expensive hospitality packages, meaning the company has made a loss on some deals. “We will need to review sales at the end of the season,” he said.

The high cost is not the only factor that deters international fans. Vigan Hoxha has been hoping for years to travel from his home in the Kosovan capital, Pristina, to watch Everton play live. But Kosovo is one of 111 countries whose residents are required to obtain visitors’ visas to enter the UK.

“The whole process lasts up to two months – if they give the visa,” Hoxha said. “The trip could turn into a €600 weekend. The average wage here is less than €300. It’s not fair that we cannot travel freely to see our club play, considering that all neighbouring countries can travel freely to the EU and UK.”

In the meantime, Hoxha demonstrates his enthusiasm by helping organise the local Everton supporters’ club and watching games on TV.

The Premier League airs in 212 countries, with 80 broadcast deals. An average game is watched by about 12 million people – this weekend is likely to be much higher, although breathless estimates of 900 million people are probably wide of the mark, judging by Premier League figures that state the 1.8 million UK viewers per game account for about 16% of the total audience.

But while fewer people in the UK are watching football on Sky and BT Sport, the big clubs have been fighting to take a bigger share of international TV rights, particularly due to deals in Asia and the US.

“Since NBC bought the rights a few years ago, I’ve seen a lot more interest,” said Tom McCarthy, owner of Smithfield Hall, a sports bar in New York. “I see more and more soccer jerseys.”

Smithfield Hall is the home bar for United fans – “I’m a Manchester United fan myself, so it makes sense.” And how does he think the game will go? “I would hope they can pull back Manchester City a bit to make the race a bit tighter. But I wouldn’t say I’m confident.”