FOOTBALL League crowds rose by their highest levels for 45 years in the 2004/05 season - in line with Italy's heralded Serie A.

Burnley's own average attendance rose marginally on the previous season to 12,639, signalling a welcome upturn after three years of declining gates.

And official statistics just released show that the 3 per cent overall rise throughout the entire league has brought more fans flooding through the turnstiles than at any time since 1960, when 18 million attended games.

Last season, the 1,656 matches of the 'regular' season were watched by 16.4 million, cementing the league's position as the best-attended sporting competition in Europe.

The Coca-Cola Championship enjoyed an encouraging first season following re-branding, with crowds rising by 10 per cent to 9.6 million, the highest since the 1952/53 season.

Championship crowds now average a healthy 17,410 supporters per match, resulting in a growth in aggregate levels on a par with the 20-club premier Italian league.

They compare even more favourably to other European equivalents - more than double those in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, while they remain considerably higher than the 13,500 that, on average, watch the same level of football in Germany.

The figures also signify that the Football League in its entirety has now enjoyed a sustained period of attendance growth over the last 19 years, with crowds steadily rising from the lowest point, when just 7.4m attended the league's current three divisions in 1985/86.

That season, Burnley's average gate was just 3,165 as they continued their nosedive towards the foot of the old Division Four, which culminated in the Great Escape just 12 months later when the Clarets only avoided relegation from the league for the first time in their history by beating Leyton Orient on the last day.

Football League chairman Sir Brian Mawhinney said: "It is very encouraging that more and more people want to watch our clubs play, particularly as this was one of the stated aims of the Football League's re-branding programme, which began last summer."

Coca-Cola League One crowds, which rose by 3 per cent last season, are more than twice their Italian and German equivalents and are more than four and a half times the number watching the same level of football in France.

Coca-Cola League Two crowds are also considerably higher than in similar continental competitions.

In Italy clubs at this level are watched, on average, by crowds of about 1,000.

In the Football League the number is 4,500.