This week’s show had a money theme, partly due to the publication of the BBC Price of Football Survey.

The survey found that the average price of the cheapest match-day tickets in the League is £21.49, up 13% since 2011, just under twice the rate of inflation, with a 4.4% increase on the year, three times inflation.

Delving into local data and looking at season ticket prices we see the following

West Ham United £620-£940

Ipswich Town £399-£805

Colchester United £320-£450

Leyton Orient £220-£350

Dagenham and Redbridge £179-£400

Southend United £350

Braintree Town £170-£340

You would reasonably expect that as you go down through the leagues, prices would fall, but you can clearly see that this is not the case with Braintree Town’s top end particularly standing out.

Many argue that the current pricing structure is taking advantage of the fans and, at the top end of the structure, 1,000 English fans are travelling to Borussia Dortmund for home games finding cost of travel plus entry is less than their preferred domestic game.

But it isn’t just admission that is the problem.  Shirts that cost very little to make are being sold with massive mark-up.  An adult home shirt at West Ham sets you back £49.99, but even at the level of Southend, their shirts cost £44.  In addition, Tim Farron MP has suggested that third kits are purely a way of fleecing fans.

There are many questions coming out of the study:  Should the TV deal at the top of the pile have led to fairer pricing for supporters?  Should there be a salary cap (with 71p of every £1 of revenue earned by Premier League clubs being spent on wages)?

Or, is there even a need for clubs to do anything?  Are fans their own worst enemy?  We still come through the turnstiles however much we are being charged.  We buy the kits religiously, even down to the seldom seen third kit.  Clubs have no incentive to change.  If we want a revolution in football, the fans themselves as consumers have to bring it about.  The top German clubs say that if they were to adopt the pricing policies of English clubs, fans would stay away.  The result is a fairer system for all.  Do we, as fans, need to teach some (not all) clubs a lesson that they cannot take their fans for granted?  It’s a tough choice, but in the words of Che Guevara “The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe.  You have to make it fall.”