According to many British footy fans, the cost of following the beautiful game in this country is spiralling out of control.
When ever-increasing football TV deals are signed worth billions of pounds, clubs can splash the cash in the transfer market and hand out multi-million pound contracts to star players like England captain Harry Kane, Manchester United’s record signing Paul Pogba and £75 million Dutch defender Virgil Van Dijk.
Top managers including José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti also draw in huge TV audiences across the UK.
But it doesn’t help fans finances. Sky Q HD with sports costs £40 a month and BT sports will set you back another £29.99, totalling £69.99 – or £839.88 over a year – with Amazon Prime, Premier Sports and the BBC license fee also required for full football coverage at home.
Our money saving specialists here at NetVoucherCodes.co.uk have come up with a solution though, that will allow supporters to watch Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool march to the Premier League title, see the drama of the Championship promotion race unfold and soak up the spectacle of the UEFA Champions League, all while reducing your spending – go to the pub.
Many football followers enjoy the social atmosphere of watching with likeminded friends and family at the pub on special occasions, such as cup games and local derbies, but wrongly think it’s cheaper to watch most games at home.
But taking the average cost of a pint across England, Wales and Scotland, we’ve crunched the numbers and found that cheering on your favourite team with fellow fans and a couple of pints in hand is cheaper than tuning in from your sofa at home.
Pubs tend to show as many matches as they can to draw in custom, but football supporters can typically watch up to two big games a week at their local and still be quids in.
A pint of beer costs £3.77 on average across the UK, so having a drink in each half of a big European game midweek and then during your team’s game at the weekend will cost £60.27 per month (£7.54 per game x 8) – or £9.72 less than monthly Sky and BT subscriptions at home.
In parts of the country serving cheaper beer, such as Herefordshire and Shropshire (£3.48 and £3.46 a pint respectively), the saving rises to well over £14 per month.
Fans in the footballing hotbed of Yorkshire would save £13.51 by our calculation, whilst Welsh supporters would find an extra £12.07 in their pockets at the end of the month.
Even football followers based in the heart of London, which is the priciest part of the country at £4.57 per pint of beer on average, could watch seven games per month at the pub for less than the price of signing up to Sky and BT sports channels.
Watching four matches per month, meanwhile, could save more casual football fans in the UK £39.83 on average per month and give them the funds to celebrate or drown their sorrows after important fixtures.
Neutrals can also enjoy watching the best footballers on the planet at the pub, without the contractual commitment of home subscriptions – including Cristiano Ronaldo at reigning Italian champions Juventus and Lionel Messi at the current Spanish title holders Barcelona.
Canny fans who want to avoid the pub can save cash by streaming games with a Now TV pass with access to Sky Sports coming in at £33.99 per month.
See here for our full data:
Full Data correct as of 07/02/2020
