Which Football Club Has the Most Annoying Fans? The FreeBets.com Football Fan Survey 2026
Football fandom is tribal by nature. But which clubs generate the most frustration, admiration, and rivalry among supporters across England?
To find out, FreeBets.com, the home of the best betting sites, surveyed 1,090 UK football fans across eight questions, covering everything from which clubs they dislike most, to who they believe has the best home atmosphere.
The results paint a clear picture. One club topped nearly every negative category, while some unexpected names emerged when fans were asked to recognise quality on both sides of the divide.
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Most Disliked Club: Arsenal edge out Manchester United
Arsenal finished as the most disliked club in English football, though by the narrowest possible margin. Just two votes separated them from Manchester United at the top of the table, making this effectively a statistical tie between the two clubs.
What is clear is that dislike is heavily concentrated at the top of the game. Nearly two-thirds of all votes in this category went to the Big Five, with clubs outside that group barely registering. In the current landscape of English football, strong feelings tend to follow the clubs with the most visibility and the most success.
Most Annoying Fanbase: Arsenal
The gap widens considerably here. Arsenal's fanbase was named the most annoying by nearly one in four respondents, a margin of 62 votes over Manchester United in second place.
It is worth noting that Arsenal supporters made up 20.5% of all respondents, so the result cannot be attributed solely to rivals voting against them. Fans from across the country contributed to a verdict that places the Gunners clearly at the top of this particular table.
Most Delusional Fanbase: Arsenal
Arsenal again lead on the "most delusional" question, with 21.3% of the vote. The result likely reflects the club's positioning in the title race conversation over recent seasons, consistently present as contenders, only to finally get over the line for the first time in 22 years this season.
One notable finding is Tottenham Hotspur finishing sixth here, ahead of Manchester City. Despite the two clubs' very different recent trajectories, Spurs' persistent optimism about their prospects appears to register with rival fans as a form of misplaced confidence, especially when you consider their Premier League status was only secured on the final game of the season.
Most Unbearable Fanbase: Arsenal
This is the closest of the three fanbase questions, with just seven votes separating Arsenal from Manchester United. The two clubs are closely matched in how they are perceived across this category, though Arsenal retain the top position.
Combined Negative Score: Arsenal lead by a significant margin
Adding together every vote cast across the four negative categories, most disliked, most annoying, most delusional, most unbearable, gives a composite picture of which clubs generate the most friction among the wider football public.
Arsenal's aggregate score of 855 is 20% higher than second-placed Manchester United. On this combined measure, the gap is the most decisive finding in the entire survey.
Manchester City's comparatively low score of 407, less than half of Arsenal's, is worth highlighting. Despite sustained dominance in the Premier League over recent years, City appear to generate significantly less antagonism among rival supporters than the clubs with longer histories at the top of the game.
Most Annoying Manager
Mikel Arteta receives the highest vote in the manager category, taking 19.7%, nearly five percentage points clear of second place. Combined with Arsenal's dominance across the fanbase questions, it completes a consistent sweep of the negative categories for the north London club.
The Rivalry Map: Who Each Fanbase Dislikes Most
Looking at how each supporting group voted on the "most disliked club" question reveals some of the underlying dynamics of English football's key rivalries.
The United and Liverpool rivalry stands out for its symmetry: 64 United fans named Liverpool as their most disliked club, with 60 Liverpool fans returning the favour. The balance suggests a genuine mutual antagonism, rather than one side driving the animus.
Manchester City fans nominating Arsenal as their primary dislike, ahead of both United and Liverpool, reflects the competitive dynamic of the title race in recent seasons. The two clubs have been the central figures in the Premier League's most closely contested periods, and that proximity appears to have sharpened feelings.
Among the smaller sub-samples, 42% of Tottenham supporters named Arsenal as their most disliked club, though with only 19 Spurs respondents in the dataset, this figure should be treated as indicative rather than definitive. The directional pattern, however, is clear.
Best Home Support: Liverpool
Liverpool's Anfield is recognised as the best home atmosphere in English football, receiving 23.4% of the vote. The ground's reputation for atmosphere, built across decades and particularly associated with European competition, clearly resonates with supporters from across the game.
Newcastle United's fifth-place finish is notable given the relative size of their support base compared to the clubs above them. St James' Park's reputation appears to have grown considerably in recent years, and rival fans have noticed.
Best Away Support: Manchester United
Manchester United lead the away support category with 21.4% of votes, reversing the order from the home support question. The result is an interesting counterpoint to United's presence near the top of most negative categories, rival fans may find them frustrating, but the quality of their travelling support is widely acknowledged.
Leeds United's appearance in fifth place for both home and away support, reflects the sustained loyalty of a fanbase that has remained highly visible through several seasons, even outside the top flight.
Key Findings
A few conclusions stand out from the data as a whole.
Arsenal's dominance of the negative categories is consistent rather than incidental. They lead on most annoying fanbase, most delusional fanbase, most unbearable fanbase, most annoying manager, and most disliked club overall. Their combined negative score of 855 represents a clear gap over every other club in the survey.
The positive categories tell a different story. Liverpool and Manchester United, both of whom feature prominently in the negative rankings, also lead on home and away support respectively. There appears to be a correlation between high-profile clubs generating strong opinions in both directions: the same visibility and identity that makes them polarising also makes their matchday culture more widely recognised.
Manchester City's low negative scores are worth further consideration. As the most dominant club of the recent era in domestic terms, the relatively limited hostility they generate compared to Arsenal or United may reflect how newer success is perceived differently to more historically embedded rivalries.
Methodology
The FreeBets.com Football Fan Survey 2026 was completed by 1,090 UK adults who identified as football supporters in May 2026. Responses were collected via an anonymous online survey instrument comprising eight questions covering club allegiance, fanbase sentiment, manager perception, and support quality.
The sample skews toward the larger Premier League fanbases: Manchester United (23.2%), Arsenal (20.5%), Liverpool (17.0%), Manchester City (12.9%), and Chelsea (10.0%) collectively account for the majority of respondents. As with any self-completion online survey, findings should be interpreted as directional indicators rather than precise population estimates.
