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Are Manchester United Profiteering from Young Fans?

According to the press parent groups and fans have criticised Manchester United for taking advantage of their young fans’ loyalty after the team recently launched their fifth home strip in just 5 years.

The team currently sells around 1.5 million shirts each year.

The newest design from Nike, recently leaked in fanzine Red Issue and on YouTube, has been knocked for both its cost and style. Unlike the usual plain red shirt, this year’s is checked with black accents and it has been suggested that this could be confusing to fans who will find it more difficult to recognise one another in this strip. Its release is expected for May so as to be in good time for both Euro 2012 and the Olympics.

Initial reactions to the design from fans on YouTube have been unfavourable.

Criticism from parents is centred around the intense pressure on families to purchase the new kits yearly, which can cost up to a hundred pounds per child. Kids sporting an older kit are labelled poor and can be bullied by their peers. This can be a huge problem for parents for many of whom money is tight.

One way to get around this would be to limit the price of the child size shirts to around the ten pounds mark, though it seems unlikely that clubs would agree to this when there’s so much profit to be made from the existing culture. Most clubs already ignore the Premier League recommendation that designs should be replicated every couple of seasons so as to give fans more wear for their money.

Similar accusations were recently levelled at the England team for their plans to replace the National strip after only eight games.

Ross Kelly

Published: Monday 20th February 2012