London has been named the best sports city by the communications firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe ©Getty Images

London in England has been named the best sports city for 2019 by global communications firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW).

Their “2019 Ranking of Sports City” evaluates the top 50 cities from around the world and is now in its seventh edition.

The 2028 Olympic and Paralympic host Los Angeles was second, while Paris, which will host the Games in 2024, came third.

“For the first time, the ranking focuses primarily on the viewpoints of International Federations and sports media, combined with an in-depth analysis of the strength of the association between sport and a city in the digital environment,” BCW said.

The latter analysis, BCW said, assessed the total number of mentions of the word “sport” associated with each city, across social media, blogs and websites.

Previously the results were based on a survey sent to a “select group” of experts and the general public.

The upcoming Summer Olympic Games host city Tokyo came fourth, while Lausanne - the Olympic capital - came fifth.

The rest of the top 10 was completed by New York, Barcelona, Madrid, Beijing and Manchester in Britain in that order.

Los Angeles, home of the National Football League team the LA Rams, was named second on the list ©Getty Images
Los Angeles, home of the National Football League team the LA Rams, was named second on the list ©Getty Images

“It is interesting to see that the Olympic rings remain the most powerful brand with which cities can be associated, despite the various challenges facing the international sporting world,” said managing director of BCW Sports Lars Haue-Pedersen.

"However, we can see from the results of our analysis of the digital environment that cities that are home to an internationally renowned football club, such as Manchester United or Real Madrid, are strongly associated with sport.

“Indeed both Manchester and Madrid now featured in the top 10 of our ranking.

"I look forward to seeing how this trend will evolve in the coming years."

Each year the three lowest ranked cities drop off the list and are replaced by the top three non-listed locations named by the survey respondents.

This year, Minsk in Belarus, set to host the European Games this year, the host of the 2002 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games Salt Lake City and Gold Coast in Australia, which hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games, have been added to the list.

They will replace Shanghai, Rotterdam in The Netherlands and the Portuguese capital Lisbon.