IT might be Bard to believe but a quarter of Premier League footie supporters are William Shakespeare fans, a poll has revealed.
And it is the top-flight club geographically closest to the home of the playwright that has the most admirers.
A surprising 43 per cent of fans of Aston Villa, whose stadium is less than 40 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon, claimed to have read at least one of his plays or sonnets since leaving school.
Newcastle United have the fewest — with just 15 per cent saying they have looked at his work, which includes Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet.
Across the 20 clubs, the figure was 26 per cent.
The results, ahead of the start of the new Premier League season on Friday, came from a survey of 2,000 footie fans, with 100 from each club, by the bingo site WhichBingo.co.uk.
Company spokesperson Susan Potter said: “If anyone would have understood the triumph and tragedy of being a Premier League fan it is certainly the Bard.”
We previously revealed Newcastle United fans were the most likely to strip off and go bare-chested at games in the winter.
A shocking seven per cent of the Toon faithful said they had stripped off in all weathers to show their passionate support for the team.
Arsenal fans were the least likely in the Premier League to strip off with less than one per cent saying they had done so.
