Football: Football `pricing kids out'

CHEAPER PREMIERSHIP football tickets for children are at the top of the Football Task Force's agenda this Christmas.

The Task Force found that 63 per cent of schoolchildren who responded to a survey about the game felt top-flight clubs sometimes price them out of attending matches.

A Task Force spokeswoman, Alison Pilling - who is also the new chairman of the Football Supporters' Association - believes children up and down the country will be unfairly denied a Christmas trip to see their favourite team over the next few days. "Our survey provides startling new evidence of the extent to which children are being shut out of our football grounds," she said. "The game must act now if it is to save the fans of the future." The Task Force plans to encourage a countrywide pricing structure based on what is currently the "best practice" among clubs.