BEES FANS ARE BUZZING NOT TO LOSE THE SHIRT OFF THEIR BACKS
IF ever you wanted an indictment of the naked commercialism of modern football or reminding how fans are milked of their last pennies, look no further than the PRAISE Brentford have received over the past couple of days.
“Well played Brentford,” gushed one Twitter user. “Brave move and to be applauded.” Brave move?
What could that be?
Some noble political gesture? Letting fans in free for a game?
A major humanitarian initiative?
No, something far, far braver.
They are – wait for it – keeping the same first-choice kit for another season.
That will be – drum roll – TWO whole seasons in the same jersey. Now, that is what you call brave. So, if you paid almost £50 for the home shirt worn by the team led by boss Thomas Frank (below) for their first Premier League campaign, it will not be out of date after 12 months.
Seriously, good on Brentford for this revolutionary wheeze.
And a reluctant nod to their kit manufacturers for going along with it.
There will be a change of second and third strips, by the way, but at least the fans will have one small window in which they are not being ripped off.
But what a hugely ironic insight into what has become of team colours when a club is being feted for making a £49 jersey have a lifespan of more than a year.
There will be no one following suit, obviously.
Every Premier League club seems to produce three different strips each season.
That is part of the contracts they sign with sportswear
manufacturers. It is laughable when kit deals are trumpeted as some sort of trophy.
It is laughable when supporters are invited to measure the size of their club by the value of its kit deal.
When Liverpool signed an £80million-a-year deal with an American company, it was duly publicised as a triumph.
But it is a triumph for Liverpool and for the American company because the American company is not paying the club £80million … YOU are.
YOU are paying the club AND the American company when you buy the standard £70 shirt.
YOU are paying the club AND the American company when you buy the £35 shorts.
Sportswear companies are not charities who like to bung football clubs.
And don’t forget, there are always those limited edition shirts you can buy. They could be the ones that are made to the same specifications as, you know, the players actually wear. Wow.
Not the cheap stuff, in other words.
Or they could be the type that Chelsea put on sale to celebrate their Champions League triumph.
They came in at £195 a pop, charitably keeping it below the £200 mark.
The bottom line, of course, is that no one forces you to buy a £70 jersey and then buy another one next season and another one the season after, etc, etc.
But peer pressure is a factor and an even stronger one is the kids being on the case.
So if some Brentford fans can put the money to better use next season, good on the club.
It is hardly a brave move but it is a step in the right direction.