YOU might be excused looking at today's date and deciding this story is an April fool.
But it's not. The Football Association's commercial deal with manufacturer Nike will result in fans being charged £90 for an "official" England shirt to wear during this summer's World Cup.
They must think that the man in the street is earning the same sort of salaries as Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart and the rest of them.
And you might conclude that anybody who does part with that sum of money for a shirt is truly a prime candidate for the April Fool accolade.
The football authorities – and, indeed, some of the top clubs with their ticket pricing – seem to work on the basis that it does not matter what they charge, fans are so blindly loyal they will pay it.
It's not unlike successive Chancellors with their taxes and booze.
Will this one, though, prove to be the straw that broke the camel's back?
Derby North MP Chris Williamson rightly describes the shirt price as "an utterly outrageous rip-off".
It used to be the case that a World Cup tournament united avid fans with those who perhaps had only a passing interest in the game.
England flags and shirts are everywhere – or, at least, they are until after we play the Germans.
Football is supposed to be the sport of the people.
Now the undiluted greed of its governing body is pricing the ordinary Joe out of it.
Only by significant swathes of fans crying "enough" and refusing to pay this ridiculous price might the message sink in.
