Sports chains caught offside over shirt prices

Football fans across Northern Ireland have paid over the odd's for repica shirts of their favourite football teams following a price fixing scam involving some of the UK's biggest sports stores.

JJB Sports, Umbro, Manchester United, Allsports £1.35m and JD Sports, as well as a number of other sports chains, were fined a total of £18.6m for fixing the price of England, Manchester United, Chelsea, Glasgow Celtic and Nottingham Forest shirts.

Commenting on the case, Office of Fair Trading Chairman John Vickers said: "The fines imposed reflect the seriousness of the price fixing in this case. Since we launched our investigation the prices of replica football shirts have fallen and consumers can now shop around and get a better price."

With Celtic and Manchester United having a massive fan base in the province today's decision is likely to cause anger amongst many fans who have spent hundred's of pound's over the past few year's constantly updating to the latest team jersey.

In 2000 and 2001 most retailers charged just under £40 for adult short-sleeved England shirts and just under £30 for juniors. But a random shopping and telephone survey by the OFT found a wide variety of prices for the 2003 England shirt on its launch. Prices ranged from £24 to £40 for adult England short-sleeved shirts and £18 to £30 for the junior version.

(MB)