Colo Colo remains the most popular club in Chile according to a market research
study carried out by Adimark on behalf of the ANFP, the Chilean national
professional league. The study was executed with a sample of 1,000
persons in six cities at the end of 2008.
Answering the question ‘which professional club do you have the most sympathy for?’, 44.7% chose Colo Colo, 24.2% chose Universidad de Chile and 7.1% opted for Universidad Catolica.
Colo Colo was named after a famous Mapuche warrior who appears as a major
figure in an epic poem about the early Auraco War between the Spaniards
and the indigenous population.
Gabriel Ruiz-Tagle, president of Colo Colo told newspaper La Tercera: “We are pleased with the survey, however, we think it is wrong, not including the
adhesion to the clubs in the smaller towns where the proportion of fans of Colo Colo is even higher. We estimate that it reaches 60%.” The study showed that the proportion of fans preferring Colo Colo varied from 27.6% in the Coquimbo/La Serena urban area to 46.8% in the capital Santiago.
(source: Soccer Investor Daily, 26.02.2009)