Why Fans Are to Blame for FA Charging £90 for England Football Shirts

Social media exploded with anger as the Football Association announced that they are going to be retailing the latest England shirt at £90.

Yes, that's just the price of the shirt.

The shorts will cost £25 (€30, $41) and the socks at £12. At £127, that's the most expensive PE kit that you're ever likely to buy.

This morning I received an email from Change.org, urging fans to boycott purchasing the new kit, which is manufactured by Nike.

Supporters of the England football team were probably thinking that it was an early April Fools' Day prank, but if we take a step back, why shouldn't the FA charge that much?

Whose fault is it that football ticket prices are so high, that players get paid more in a week than many of us get over several years, that they're able to charge £90 for a new shirt that looks very similar to all the others?

We, as the fans, are to blame.

Put it this way, if you owned a small store and you sold a lot of what you are selling, then wouldn't you raise the cost of it gradually over time?

Unfortunately for us, the fans, the price has risen considerably. We all moan about it but we don't do anything about it.

Even if many fans did decide not to buy the shirt, there are still millions of people that will, not just in England, but worldwide.

Individually, we can't make a difference to the sky high prices associated with top-level football.

Collectively we can't either.

And as we pay more, the players get paid more. We moan constantly about players earning too much money for what they do, which is undeniably true, but who are we to begrudge them it?

How many people have left a job to earn more money elsewhere? Just because they get paid more, doesn't mean that they're not allowed to do the same.

It's a vicious circle.

Price of the Beautiful Game

In 2011, it was reported that over the past two decades, the average price of match day tickets has soared by 1,000%.

In 1989, the cheapest price to go to Anfield was £4 a ticket, in 2011 it was £45. Football hasn't been totally recession proof though.

Over the last two years there's been a 5% drop in average ticket prices, according to the BBC's 2013 survey. But prices are back on the rise again as the economy starts to gain momentum.

As fans we can voice our opinions, but as customers we're in no position to demand that the prices are lowered because, ultimately, we're still going to pay it.

All this anger over how much a shirt is going to cost, but football is a cash cow.

Football follows the same principle as any other business. Why is there no outcry when Ralph Lauren charges £115 for a plain black t-shirt? Because it's the norm.

We expect to pay more for the label, so we should come to terms with the fact that we should expect to pay more for all things football related.

The FA's only crime is that it's quite a sharp increase. If they had eased us into it earlier on, we wouldn't have bat an eyelid.

Get used to it, because we can expect to pay more in the future.