Wearing your football team’s shirt is part and parcel of fan culture and is a great way to support your club. But in recent years, the cost of these shirts has surged dramatically, with one study showing that half of fans are worried about the cost of shirts.
With some Premier League clubs now charging up to £85 for a base adult shirt, the cost of football apparel is becoming a big issue for fans.
To assess the situation, Net World Sports has analysed historical shirt price data of clubs across the football league against the inflation rate to find out which clubs are charging the most and predict how much football shirts may cost ten years from now.
Below is a breakdown of the number of clubs included from each league based on the data that was available:
- Premier League: 20 out of 20 teams
- Championship: 20 out of 24 teams
- League One: 19 out of 24 teams
- League Two: 19 out of 24 teams
The teams with the biggest increase in price since 2014/15:
To find out just how much football shirt prices have risen over the past decade, Net World Sports have collated the adult and junior shirt prices from the 2014/15 season to compare them with their current cost to identify the clubs with the steepest increases.
Across the 78 teams analysed, the average price increase was 34.9%, which is particularly concerning when compared to the average rate of inflation for clothing, which peaked at 7.6% in 2022.
1. Fulham
The West London club had the biggest increase in shirt prices of the clubs surveyed, with a staggering 74.65% cost increase since the 2014/15 season. Despite spending six of the last ten seasons outside of the top division, the cost of an adult shirt is currently £80, placing it among the top ten most expensive in the country.
2. Coventry City
It’s been a rocky few years for Coventry, with stadium ownership issues and worrying performances on the pitch resulting in their relegation to the fourth tier of English football during the 2016/17 season. Since then, The Sky Blues have improved their on-field performance. However, fans have faced the second biggest increase in shirt costs over the past ten years, with a 74.63% price rise.
3. Sheffield Wednesday
The third-highest football shirt price increase is Sheffield Wednesday, with the cost of an Owls shirt increasing by 74.58% over the past decade. The Yorkshire club has the most expensive adult shirt in the Championship, costing £69 despite a 20th place finish last season.
Perhaps surprisingly, Premier League giants Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City finished outside the top 15 for shirt price increases. Meanwhile, newly promoted Southampton were the Premier League side with the smallest price increase of just 16.25%, ranking them 73rd in the study.
2034/35 predicted prices:
With football shirt prices already skyrocketing over the past ten years, we wanted to find out how much fans could be paying for their favourite team’s shirt in ten years’ time.
By analysing the historical cost data, we have been able to project how much each fan could expect to pay for both adult and junior shirts in the 2034/35 season.
According to our predictions, Chelsea will have the most expensive shirt, with the average price coming in at £125.05. Currently, Chelsea’s adult shirt is the most expensive in the league priced at £85, tied with Tottenham. Chelsea’s junior shirt also leads at £64.99.
Fulham and Newcastle round out the top three for the highest shirt prices in the 34/35 season, with their average shirt costs projected to be £122.57 and £114.36, respectively. For teams currently outside the top division, Sheffield Wednesday looks likely to come in as the most expensive overall, with an average shirt price of £106.33.
Currently, the average cost of an adult’s shirt across the Premier League is £72.60. However, we predict this will rise to £112.46, while the cost for junior shirts increases from £53.15 to £77.69.
Over the next ten years, however, some clubs are expected to keep their shirt prices relatively low. Among them, Doncaster Rovers are predicted to offer the most affordable shirts in the 34/35 season, with the average cost of their shirts expected to be £45.20. Accrington Stanley (£45.72) and Carlisle United (£45.73) are also predicted to be among the three clubs with the lowest shirt prices.
Clubs charging their fans the most for adult and junior shirts:
Over the last ten years, the cost of products has steadily risen, but how have football shirt prices compared to general inflation?
To find out, we have compared the increase in shirt cost of adult and junior shirts from 14/15 to the current day against the consumer price index (CPI) to find out whether shirt costs have risen in line with inflation.
Of the 78 clubs involved in the study, 59 have increased their shirt prices at a higher rate than the CPI’s inflation rate for clothing over the past decade.
Fulham and Newcastle have increased their shirt prices the most above inflation, with their shirts costing 46.9% higher than if they had followed the general inflation rate for clothing. When adjusted for inflation, their shirts should come in at around £55. However, their shirts currently cost an average of £80.
Fans of London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham have also seen the cost of their shirts rise rapidly over the past decade with shirts costing 40.5% more than inflation-adjusted estimates. Aston Villa has similarly increased prices, with shirts priced 37.8% above what inflation would predict.
Clubs charging their fans the least for adult and junior shirts:
While most football league teams have raised shirt prices beyond the rate of inflation, several clubs have been able to keep their prices in line with, or even below, inflation rates.
Of those teams, Doncaster Rovers offer their fans the best deal, with shirts costing 9.8% less than they would if priced according to inflation. The South Yorkshire club’s adult shirts currently cost £48, though they should cost around £53 according to inflation, saving fans £5.20 per shirt.
Among Premier League clubs, Southampton is the only team pricing adult and junior shirts slightly below the rate of inflation, at 0.81% lower than expected. In the Championship, Millwall, Stoke, and Blackburn are also notable for keeping their prices below inflation.
Methodology
Baseline Shirt Prices (2014/15 Season)
We collected the price of each club’s adult and junior replica shirts from the 2014/15 season.
Adjusting for Inflation: UK CPI for Clothing
To account for inflation, we used the UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) specifically for clothing items from 2014 to 2024, sourced from Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/318469/clothing-inflation-rate-uk/). The CPI for clothing represents the general inflation rate used each year.
Applying Compound Inflation to Estimate Current Prices
We calculated the inflation-adjusted prices by applying compound inflation, which considers the compounding effect over multiple years. Each year’s CPI percentage was applied to the previous year’s adjusted price as follows:
- Year 1 (2014/15): Starting from the 2014/15 shirt price, we increased it by that year’s CPI for clothing.
- Subsequent Years (2015–2024): Each adjusted price was further increased by the CPI percentage for each successive year, reflecting cumulative inflation year over year.
This gave us a projected price for the 2034/25 season.
Comparing Estimated and Actual 2024/25 Prices
We then compared them to the actual shirt prices for the 2024/25 season. This comparison revealed:
- Clubs with Price Increases Above Inflation: Identifying which clubs have raised shirt prices beyond what inflation alone would suggest.
- Clubs Maintaining or Reducing Inflationary Impact: Highlighting clubs that have kept prices at or below inflation-adjusted levels, indicating efforts to control costs for fans.
Disclaimer: The clubs included in this analysis were selected based on data availability. Some clubs were omitted due to insufficient information on historical shirt prices.
About Net World Sports:
Net World Sports is an award-winning online sports equipment retailer which provides world-class products to clubs, organisations, and thousands of customers around the globe.
The company was founded by Alex Lovén MBE in 2009 and recently moved into a state-of-the-art £25m HQ in Wrexham, which is home to over 250 employees. The facility stocks over 15,000 products, 95% of which are own brand and delivered to 100+ countries worldwide.
Net World Sports works with elite clubs and organisations around the world including Manchester United, Manchester City, FA Wales & Basketball Wales, along with supplying global events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
For more information, follow Net World Sports on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook & X.
By: Andrew Griffiths