Survey shows fans choose football over Valentine’s Day romance

Romance will be in the air for some on Valentine’s Day, but most football fans aren’t willing to skip tonight’s action to spend a romantic evening with their partner.

A survey commissioned by The Football Pools found that only 21% want to spend the night with their partner and 45% would prefer to watch the football on TV. 10% of the 2,000 fans that were asked will be heading to a match, on a night featuring UEFA Champions League matches and a full fixture list in the Football League.

The consolation for partners of football lovers is that most fans would choose their partner over their club if it meant losing them forever, while 59% would choose to switch allegiances to their arch rival rather than leave their partner.

Female fans were more willing to switch, with 66% saying they’d support their team’s arch rival if the future of their relationship depended on it, while 45% of men would rather end the relationship than switch clubs.

Stoke City fans were revealed to be the most romantic in the Premier League, with 55% choosing to spend Valentine’s Day with their partner, and 81% willing to stop supporting the club for their other half. AFC Bournemouth fans were shown to be the least passionate, with not a single fan choosing a romantic evening over football.

Interestingly, it also seems that football is spilling over into other areas of romance; one in ten admitted to having thought about football during sex, while 80% of Burnley fans said they have thought about football at a wedding.