ONE bizarre statistic jumped out at me from the masses of information published in the BBC’s annual price of football survey.

That is a season ticket for Barcelona – priced at £103.38 – is equal to the cost of buying a pie at every one of Kidderminster’s home games.

I have not sampled one of Kidderminster’s finest, but at £4.50 it had better be exceptionally tasty.

Still, even if it was up there with Morecambe’s famed pastry – you can buy them at Harrods, you know – I doubt it could match the quality of fayre on offer at Camp Nou.

The very fact the BBC – compelled by its charter – puts time and resources into publishing its annual dossier is evidence in itself that fans have not been getting good value for money.

In many ways the Beeb is preaching to the converted, but it is still hard to see whether shaming clubs up and down the country is having any real effect.

The Premier League was armed with its regular riposte, issuing a rebuttal statement on the stroke of midnight, just as this year’s damning facts and figures were released.

Rather than launching an impassioned apology to Arsenal fans, who, it transpires, have to fork out a minimum of £1,000 to see their team for the season, the powers that be merely highlighted the attendance figures.

The statistics show that, across the board, 95 per cent of all seats available to fans of Premier League clubs last season were occupied.

So what?

In a typically pointless response from the government, sports minister Helen Grant MP said she was very “cross” and “concerned” by the figures and had set up a task force to look into it.

Unless that’s an SAS task force armed with guns pointed directly to the heads of football chairmen then I don’t think it would do much good.

The truth is that ticket prices – and the cost of pies for that matter – are governed by only two things – supply and demand.

No club is forcing fans through the turnstiles, they turn up week in, week out by their own volition.

If fans feel prices are too expensive then they may start to pick and choose their games, or just give up all together.

It’s their choice – or is it?

The reason this debate continues to rage is that many football fans feel they have no choice but to continue supporting their club – whatever the cost.

The elasticity of demand for a football fan is akin to a drug addict.

If they can’t afford it, they would beg, borrow or steal to continue watching their team, or maybe even get a loan.

Now there’s a thought – I hear QuickQuid and Wonga offer some competitive rates.