"Portugal outside of Big 3" is really pretty small business lol. The 2nd tier of the Polish leauge also has more attendance than that, and Poland is among the European countries with fewest people going to football games per capita.
The "Big 3" is more than 60% of attendance of whole Primeira Liga.
I can't wait until the guy hears about what every other job looks like.
Also Estonia will likely play against the top teams in the play-offs, it's really weird but they can win twice and somehow qualify for Euro after getting 1 point in the qualifying group.
I don't really know what it means tbh. The 6th biggest league in Europe is probably 2. Bundesliga or English Championship, looking at clubs' facilities, signings, revenues. Of course those teams don't compete in Europe, but that's the system in Europe, not the league. The highest revenue top-flight competition after France was Russia, now it's probably not so it's Turkey. In terms of sport results and famous clubs, the big one in Europe is Portugal, but Dutch clubs had some good results in UEFA competitions in recent years.
There are also several non-European leagues that are smaller in revenue than France but bigger than any other European top-flight - actually six of them by most recent data - so hard to say which two would be in the "7".
All in all I don't know what people mean saying "top 7", but seeing the publication is German I assume Western European ones.
Hard to say for me really. Football is definitely popular. People just don't go in as big amounts as in football countries, relatively to the country's whole population. The only country I found with a lower number among the ones I checked was Ireland, but Ireland definitely has other sports they prefer, in Poland football is definitely the most popular sport overall.
What I can say is that in Germany football is considered way more inclusive entertainment, more people think it's just a nice way to spend time with your family, "normal" people go to games. In Poland going to games is more associated with being a hooli, an ultra, and most middle-class people really despise the idea. I can say my family would definitely never go to a football game, and tbh even avoid going out on the time of the game to not meet the fans on the street to avoid unpleasantries. Also basically all my friends (middle class) despise football and football fans and think it's an entertainment for simpletons and would never go to a game. The general popular opinion in this class is that footballers are overpaid lazy do-nothings who are all very bad at their job, and the fans are lowlife who will beat someone up.
I can also say that my hometown club has a stadium of 40 000, which is just too big in general. It was built for Euro 2012, in hopes that the culture will catch up to the facilities. The average last season was 10 thousand people, when they were battling relegation. This season, inexplicably, they keep winning games and lead the league, and the stadium is suddenly full.