Crowds at matches in the Coca-Cola Football League have broken the seventeen million mark for the first time in 50 years.

A total of 17.1m supporters attended the 1,656 league matches played during 2009/10, an increase of 4.4% on last season and the highest aggregate crowd figure since the 1959/60 campaign.

The Football League continues to enjoy sustained attendance growth with gates having more than doubled during the last 25 years. The average Football League crowd is now higher than 10,000.

The Coca-Cola Championship has retained its place as the fourth most watched league in Europe with a total audience of more than 9.9m fans. Crowds grew by 0.3% this season and averaged 17,949.

Only Germany's Bundesliga (13.1m), the Premier League (12.9m) and Spain's La Liga (11.0m) can boast more fans through the turnstiles, with The Football League's top division, once again, attracting more supporters than Italy's Serie A (9.1m) and France's Ligue 1 (7.6m).

Crowds for matches in Coca-Cola League 1 and Coca-Cola League 2 averaged 9,136 and 3,853 respectively, with crowds in the former increasing by a remarkable 21%.

These figures continue to outstrip those of comparable levels of the game in Europe's other major footballing nations. League 1 crowds are more than 75% greater than those in Germany and more than three times higher than those recorded in Italy and France. League 2, attendances are twice those of their German equivalents and almost five times those of Italian football.

Football League Chairman, Greg Clarke, said: "Attracting more than seventeen million fans into their grounds is an outstanding achievement by Football League clubs, particularly in the current economic climate.

"Our clubs are focussed on attracting a new, family audience to football and those efforts are clearly working.

"I would like to thank everybody that has been to one of our matches this season for supporting their club and our competition."