• Football is the most popular sport with Gen Z adults (EY Sports Engagement Index) 

• The average attendance for top-flight football games in England reached over 40,000 for the first time in history last season (Sky Sports)

• The Premier League is one of the only sporting properties that has almost as much support from young British fans as older ones (YouGov)

Football is more popular than it’s ever been in the UK. The days of the COVID-19 pandemic are long behind us, in-game attendances are back up, and millions of fans continue to stream Premier League and EFL games on Sky Sports. Quite simply, football is on top again, which is largely being driven by the new generation of fans coming through. 

What’s great about football is that it’s governed by the fans. Unlike politics, where the general public doesn’t have much say in anything that goes on, football is the exact opposite. If fans don’t like something, they speak up, protest, and demand change (just ask the six Premier League clubs who tried to start a Super League back in 2021). They’ve done this for a huge range of different causes over the years, with the most recent one being season ticket prices. 

This past weekend, thousands of fans from Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Manchester United joined together in a fight against the rise of season ticket prices over the past several seasons. The highlight was when a huge number of these fans gathered outside Old Trafford with a banner saying ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty.’ And as seen by the footage on the day, many of these fans were from younger generations. 

So, despite the fact that football is booming across the country, what’s clear to see is that clubs need to start doing more for young supporters, particularly during a time where the economy is struggling and football has become exceedingly expensive to watch for the average person. Here’s a closer look at what clubs can do, from the Premier League to EFL, in an attempt to drastically improve the supporter experience over the coming years. 

Young Supporters: The Future of Football 

Every new generation of fan that comes through the football world is just as important as the last. They carry on traditions, keep stadium atmospheres alive, and ultimately provide the players with the matchday support they need. If you speak to any former Premier League or EFL player, they’ll tell you that there’s nothing like the support that you get from the fans, which is why they’re continuously credited with helping their teams get important results. Without them, the heart and soul of a club dies. Knowing this, young supporters need to be prioritized above everything else, as they’re the present (and future) of the game. 

How Football Clubs Can Help Young Supporters

1. Lower Season Ticket Prices

A recent survey from BettingTools found that most Premier League fans are furious with the current ticket prices, with 100% of Liverpool fans, 82% of Leicester City, and 77% of Crystal Palace supporters all sharing this belief. Therefore, the first (and most obvious) step that needs to be taken is for clubs to start lowering season ticket prices. 

Naturally, because it’s the biggest football league in the world, young Premier League supporters have suffered the most, as the average season ticket for the Premier League (2024/25) has increased by 7.5%. One of the biggest examples of this is Manchester City, who raised their season ticket price by an average of 5%. Who picks up the bill? The fans. 

This is why it’s essential that clubs — especially the big Premier League names — do something to address the issue before it gets out of control. The downside to not fixing season ticket prices will be a lack of genuine young supporters inside stadiums, who will quickly become alienated. This is something that we’re already starting to see, with many fans starting to notice that Premier League crowd atmospheres aren’t as good as they used to be. 

2. Invest in Stadium Upgrades 

Over the past decade, a decent number of top-flight clubs have built new stadiums or revamped their existing ones, including Everton and Brentford. However, it’s an open secret that many clubs have failed to invest in their stadiums, something that has been to the detriment of younger fans. 

For example, Old Trafford has become something of an ongoing joke amongst rival Premier League fans, with Manchester United’s iconic stadium beginning to fall apart (literally) over the past few years. 

By investing in their stadiums, clubs can provide fans with a much better matchday experience, especially moving into the future. If not, ten or twenty years down the line, we might enter a situation where lots of top flight clubs have dated or undeveloped stadiums that aren’t capable of providing top level fan experience. 

3. Make Streaming More Accessible

Even though football streaming has skyrocketed across the UK over recent years, it isn’t without its problems. At the moment, if you want to watch every Premier League game throughout the season, you need to subscribe to Sky Sports, TNT Sports, Amazon Prime Video, and various other providers, which costs fans hundreds of pounds per year (Sky Sports Premier League alone starts at £20 a month). And with the cost of living impacting most young people across the country, the streaming model doesn’t appear to be sustainable. This is highlighted through the fact that illegal streaming of football games in the UK is reaching record heights. The only solution here is for streaming providers to reduce the cost of their football subscriptions, although whether this will happen or not remains to be seen. 

4. Engage More with Supporters’ Groups

Due to rising season ticket prices, the current issues surrounding football streaming in the UK, and the potential of a ‘European Super League’ still a realistic possibility in the future, clubs need to start engaging more with Supporters’ Groups. Many of these groups are filled with young supporters who want to voice their opinions, so listening to them over the coming decades is vital. This way, clubs can understand what young fans want and make them feel a greater part of the club. After all, there’s an argument to be made that the most important voice in football is the voice of the young fan. 

5. Reduce Shirt Prices 

Lastly, clubs across the Premier League and EFL need to start reducing shirt prices. A decade ago, the average Premier League shirt cost £47.40. Now, it’s a staggering £72.60. With prices increasing by almost 50%, it’s no surprise that young fans are feeling the squeeze on their pockets. This has even led to the counterfeit shirt market booming, as many fans of Premier League clubs simply don’t want to pay the highly inflated prices. Not only is this bad for business, but it’s bad for young supporters who are no longer able to afford the shirts of the clubs they love. 

Summary 

It’s fair to say that the new generation of football fans coming through aren’t quite getting a fair deal. Compared to the past, they are paying more for season tickets, television broadcast packages, and club merchandise, which could have a negative long-term impact on the game if action isn’t taken. Clubs need to start doing more for younger fans now before it’s too late, as there’s a very real risk that the Premier League could start to see a downturn in engagement, similar to that of the NBA’s recent decline in America, if something isn’t done soon. The next few years will be incredibly important, so let’s wait and see what happens. 

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