Football: Playing The Money Game

When the coach makes that big signing, it’s easy for fans to get excited. Remember the buzz around Chelsea when Roman Abromavich took over, brought in Jose Mourinho, and splurged on top players like Andrei Shevchenko, who cost the Russian businessman a British transfer record ?30m?

Football fans across the country, not just Chelsea fans, were excited about this record-breaking deal, and whether in favour of or not, were intrigued by what Abromavich was doing with the London club. However, although exciting at the time, what football fans must remember is that club owners like Abromavich — whether football fans themselves or not — are businessmen, and fundamentally in it for the money.

With every big outgoing, then, there has to be a big incoming as well. For every record signing like Shevchenko, there are ticket price increases. For every new ground, like Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, there are price increases on replica strips. And for the player’s own salaries, described last year by MP Gerry Sutcliffe as “obscene”, there are more inevitable price hikes, be it for tickets, shirts, food at the ground and even the match-day programme!

It is little wonder, then, that research conducted by Virgin Money shows that the average amount of money spent by a Premiership fan in 2007 was a whopping ?1,331, with 12% of these fans admitting to spending up to ?3000 on tickets alone throughout the season. This was an overall 10% increase on 2006’s average price of attending a match, and as Virgin Money spokesman John Franklin suggests, it is an increase that puts footy fans in a desperate position, claiming that as football is a passion for many supporters and not just a past-time, most regular fans would not be prepared to let finances get in the way of their love for the beautiful game.

So with football being more expensive than ever, and with the idea of giving it up being completely unthinkable for most football fans, what can a footy fan do to save money while indulging their passion for the game?

One thing that is becoming more popular is the use of football-fan-specific credit cards. With more banks recognising football as the big business it has become, more are offering savings accounts and credit cards designed with football fans in mind, some of which offer fan-tastic perks such as 0% interest when using them to buy your football season ticket. With season tickets taking up a fair chunk of the money spent by fans each year, this inspired way to pay for it could be a deal-breaker for those footy fans looking for a credit card.

Furthermore, many club-branded credit cards will also offer additional benefits for supporters, including package deals which allow fans to collect and earn reward points for football merchandise when shopping at selected partner-stores, and some even offer once in a lifetime football-inspired prizes.

However, like with big-name transfer deals, it’s easy to get over-excited by these football credit cards, and it’s important to compare these football credit cards with regular ones, to see if you’re football mad enough to really benefit from the deals they offer.

Disclaimer:
This article has been written for information and interest purposes only. The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author only, and should not be construed as advice or used to make financial decisions. Expert financial advice should always be sought and any links contained within this article are included for information purposes only.