Yahoo Finance The cost of following England at Euro 2024
The truly dedicated football fan could spend a small fortune this summer. If an England fan flew out before the first match of the Euros, watched every England match, and then travelled back after seeing them in the final, they’d need to part with £8,000. Even if you stay home, the costs of supporting soon add up once you’ve gone to the pub a few times and splashed out on anything from a shirt to a set of flags for your car. For an awful lot of fans, being able to support their team is worth every penny – whatever it costs. However, before you hand over your card and rack up the costs, it’s worth knowing what your money could be doing for you elsewhere.
If you were to watch football in a pub every Saturday and buy two pints (costing the average of £5.17 each), you’d spend £44.81 a month. If you were to put that into a regular savings account each month, paying 6%, in a year, you could build a lump sum of £555. If you committed to it for the long term, invested this sum every month for 10 years, and made 5% a year, you could end up with £7,316. You could blow that on a trip to support the team in an overseas tournament, or buy a second hand car. If you watched via a sports TV subscription instead, the cost varies from £34.99 to £72 a month. If you went all out, you’d spend £864 a year, which invested monthly for 10 years could leave you with £11,159.
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For the price of the Euros in full every four years, assuming you saved regularly towards your travel bill, you’d need to put away £167 a month, which could grow to £25,932 in 10 years if you were investing each month. That’s enough for a 10% deposit on the average first-time buyer property costing £235,851, with a little left over to put towards the cost of a move.
If you were to watch your team every week in person, the costs really mount. Assuming you got a season ticket, travelled to all the away games, and didn’t take a packed lunch, you could easily spend £4,000 a year, or £333 a month – spread throughout 12 months. Invested monthly for ten years, it could build a nest egg of £51,709. That’s the kind of life-changing sum of cash that might make any football fan think twice about how much they’re spending.
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There will be plenty of people who say watching football is worth so much to them that they don’t mind the cost. For them, the savings are nothing compared to the joy that football brings them on a weekly basis. But if you’re less committed and going along for the sake of friends or family, it’s a good reason to reconsider whether it’s worth the time and money. You could save significantly by giving it a miss and get a major chunk of your weekend back into the bargain.
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