How we calculate the rating
Every Sunday night three staffers at the Stoke desk pull a snapshot of the club feeds. We don't rank by loudest noise on social — that would put the same five accounts on top every week. Instead, the score is built from three honest, measurable pillars that any supporter could double-check if we sent them the spreadsheet.
The first pillar is member activity: posts written, replies sent, match threads kept alive past the final whistle. A club where ten people argue tactics for an hour scores higher than one where two hundred members lurk in silence. The second pillar is monthly growth: net new joiners minus quiet exits, weighted so a 200-member club punching above its weight isn't drowned out by the big names. The third pillar is matchday turnout: ticket swaps, coach shares, photos posted from inside the ground — proof the chat translates to bodies in seats.
Those three numbers get blended into a single score from 0 to 10, fresh every week. No paid placements, no fan-club merch sales tipping the scale, no hidden tie-breakers. If a club drops, we tell them why. If a club climbs, the lift is earned in the stands, not the timeline — and that, more than the logo on the card, is what the ZenSport leaderboard is here to celebrate.
Browse every fan club