Shadow sport secretary Tom Watson has criticised late changes to Premier League fixtures for TV, and has called for more flexible rail tickets.

Under the current system, rail tickets can be booked up to three months in advance, and you can make big savings by doing so. However, broadcasters only need to give six weeks to move a match when the TV schedule requires it.

What this means, is that in order to buy the cheapest tickets to watch Arsenal face Manchester City at the Etihad, you should buy them today. But if Sky decide to move the game in the next few weeks, there will be nothing you can do about it, and you’ll just have to pay the £10 admin fee and the price of a new, more expensive ticket.

£10 on its own doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you consider the amount that away fans pay nearly every week to watch their side, it doesn’t seem fair to add more on top of that. Plus, the total bill can come to a lot more than that if the ticket prices are significantly increased.

The Guardian reports that if you bought a ticket from Leicester to London now it would cost you £31 more than if you could’ve bought it in June, so with the admin fee a full £41 extra just for one game. That’s well over the price of a match ticket (£30) in avoidable transport fees.

“There’s no doubt that despite the huge benefits that broadcast revenues have brought clubs, there are knock-on effects to travelling fans,” Watson said. “It’s about time the Premier League, broadcasters and rail companies put fans’ interests over commercial interests.”

“We need more flexible ticketing and common-sense scheduling of fixtures to ensure that fans can get to and from games safely without breaking the bank. We would like to see the introduction of a flexible ‘fan-fare’ system, whereby tickets bought in advance can be transferred without a fee or extra mark-up when matches are switched for television.”

Fans preparing to travel all over the country this season will certainly agree with this sentiment.