Next season football shirts will be more expensive

At the beginning of the season, we conducted a study on the cost of football shirts in the five major European leagues. The result was that Serie A is the most expensive, with an average price of a whopping 88 euros. Next season, this record will have to be adjusted upwards, as rumour has it that the major kit suppliers will adjust the purchase prices of the clubs' official jerseys. adidas, Nike and PUMA will actually increase the prices of their products by 5 to 11% between 'Authentic' and 'Replica' jerseys.

adidas in particular will approach the €100 mark for the Replica version, stopping at €99.95, while the Authentic version will cost €160, a 14.3% increase on last season when it cost €140. Nike, on the other hand, will raise the Replica version to 95 euros and the Authentic version to 150 euros, while PUMA is the only company that has not increased its premium collection. There will also be slight changes to the children's jerseys and the match shorts.

A net increase on all official club merchandising, which was unfortunately already foreseen, but which will make it even harder for fans to wear their favourites' jerseys to the stadium. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether these increases will also be applied by the other Serie A kit suppliers, who supply many more clubs than the three top clubs, and whether the same prices will be adhered to in the other leagues, as is the trend due to the problems with suppliers and materials.

At a time when both ticket and shirt prices are driving away a large proportion of the public, this could be another blow to fans' confidence in clubs and give new strength to the counterfeit market, which now has as high a turnover as the official market.