Britain's football-loving females
The UK's women may not be known for their footballing enthusiasm, but those who do follow the beautiful game are certainly willing to make the financial sacrifices.
New research from Virgin shows that 5.8 million British females count themselves football fans and, to prove it, they spend more on club merchandise and match tickets than the rest of the female population spends on hair cuts and make up.
A passion for football induced UK women to spend an average of £179 last year.
This amounts to a collective sum of £710 million on match-day tickets, and another £298 million on club merchandise in 2005.
That figure comes to £269 million more a year than every woman in the UK spends combined on beauty products and hair styling.
'Women love football just as much as men and they're proving it with the amount they spend week in, week out,' said Virgin spokesman Scott Mowbray.
With the UK's men by contrast spending more than twice as much on their partners than they do on following their favourite team, being a British female soccer fan could make for a lucrative deal. | 
