'Half of fans' worried about football shirt prices as some clubs charge £85

A new season of The Premier League is getting back underway and now is often the time of year that supporters flock to club websites and mega stores to get their hands on the latest kits.

However, some of England's elite clubs are now charging at least £80 for a basic adult shirt. Children's shirts, which are VAT exempt, can now cost as much as £65.

Some clubs also sell a "pro-version" of their shirts, which will be the same as the players will wear during matches. They can cost as much as £125.

A survey by the Football Supporters' Association suggests at least half of fans consider their club's shirt price to be an important issue.

Watch Nick Smith's report here:

Tottenham and Chelsea's new Nike shirts are the most expensive basic adult shirts, at around £85 each.

Colin Saunders and his son Elliot from Linton near Cambridge both describe themselves as 'Arsenal super-fans' and try to buy home and away kits each season. But a basic official replica will now cost £80.

Colin said:

"It's absolutely crazy prices really isn't it now I'm talking sort of around 80 and if you want to name a number you're talking nearly 100 it's just it's too much it really is.

I mean Elliot's now moving into sort of small adults so we're paying the same prices, but previously it wasn't much of a discount for the children."

Where does the money go on an £80 football shirt?

Kieran Maguire is an economist specialising in football finance and is also the host of "The Price of Football" podcast. He says the price of football shirts is mostly driven by the kit manufacturers, who can pay hundreds of millions of pounds to clubs for the rights to produce their merchandise.

He said:

"The manufacturers themselves pay huge commissions to the football club. So if we take a look at the latest deal that's just been signed between Manchester United and Adidas, that's worth 900 million pounds over the course of 10 years.

Therefore the kit manufacturer needs to recoup that money as quickly as possible. What they've found is that every time they've increased prices, there's been no impact in terms of the volume of sales.

So therefore, as far as they're concerned, they're kicking against an open door."

Manufacturers such as Nike and Adidas say prices have risen in recent years due to sharp increases in the production costs.

Alex Street is a Co Founder of Mystery Jersey King, a website offering subscribers a random shirt to be unboxed. He deals directly with manufacturers, and has also branched into collecting and selling retro shirts as a more affordable alternative. He said:

"The reason there's a higher price on the shirts now is due to mainly the manufacturing costs. Manufacturers have got to employ more staff who need higher wages.

The quality of fabrics are becoming more expensive and the cost to produce so many of these shirts, if they've got bigger costs as a manufacturer, they've got to raise their prices."

It has become commonplace for clubs to bring out new home, away and third kits each season. However Brentford have now adopted a system where they will only replace their home kits every two seasons, which was commonplace during the 1980s and 1990s. Luton town also confirmed they are keeping last season's Premier League strip for this season in the Championship.

The rise of fake shirts:

Over the last decade, counterfeit kits, often imported directly from websites in the Far East, have become increasingly popular. Some retailers will charge as little as £15 for a knock-off shirt, which many fans describe as "almost indistinguishable" from the real thing.

Adam Bragg, Middlesborough fan and father says he will often look to buy them as a budget alternative:

"We will buy stuff for my son that is counterfeit. I don't mind admitting that, because he'll play football in it and it'll get ruined, stained and covered in mud. I'd rather that happen to a £17 shirt than to a £60 shirt.

The quality has gotten better and better over the years to the point where you're almost can't differentiate between the genuine goods and the goods that are not genuine."

Trading Standards warn that while buying fake goods for personal use is not technically breaking the law, it could be funding things like modern slavery or organised crime.