Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wokingham, Clive Jones, has backed his party’s pledge to offer a selection of Premier League games on either BBC or ITV, saying “fans should not be priced out of watching live football”.
Subscriptions for the three channels showing Premier League matches is now £870, and the average season ticket price is rising by another £33 a year, to £585.
The Liberal Democrats have announced their manifesto will call for a “free-to-air revolution”, with Premier League games being aired on channels including BBC and ITV.
The policy would see ten Premier League games per season shown on free-to-air TV.
New research by the party has revealed the average price of a season ticket for Premier League Clubs will rise by £33 next season.
The worst offender for rising season ticket prices was Nottingham Forest which saw prices rise by 15%. The cheapest season ticket for Arsenal now tops £1,000.
Further analysis by the Liberal Democrats revealed football fans are left to fork out £870 a year in subscriptions to Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video if they want to see Premier League games.
The Liberal Democrats manifesto would put Premier League games back on free-to-air channels, as well as ten games from the Scottish Championship and 20 games from the English Football League, such as the Championship.
Clive said: “Football is important to local communities and should be accessible to everyone.
“It’s a tragedy, especially for the next generation of young fans, that they are being priced out of watching live football.
“I know how important local clubs are to communities, and I was delighted to support Reading fans recently when there were issues with Wycombe Wanderers FC trying to buy Reading’s training ground following mismanagement by the club’s current owner which has led to huge problems.
“This free-to-air revolution being proposed by the Lib Dems will be a great benefit to fans, particularly now in this cost-of-living crisis.”
