READING FC fans have heavily criticised the price of tickets for the Championship opener at QPR, writes Jacob Potter.

Rangers are asking £33 for an adult ticket for the clash at Loftus Road on Saturday, August 5 which is more than some Premier League clubs will charge away fans next season.

Royals supporters claim the price is far too expensive and goes against the grain, as many clubs all over the country have vowed to keep the cost of away tickets down.

When the price of tickets for the 'hoops derby' at Loftus Road were announced this week it sparked a passionate debate among supporters, most of whom felt it did not represent good value for money.

Tickets are priced at £33 for adults, £23 for over 60's and students, whilst Under 17's will pay £16.

If the cost of train fare and travel is factored in, an adult Reading fan might have to fork out around £50 in total to watch a Championship game a mere 33 miles away.

Ironically, prices will be capped at £20 for QPR supporters when they visit the Madejksi stadium in March of next year for the return fixture.

This is after Reading publicly supported the “Twenty's Plenty” campaign which was launched by The Football Supporters Federation before the start of the 2016 season.

Reading fans were quick to voice their displeasure over ticket prices at Loftus Road on social media.

Fin South Klein tweeted: 'Considering their fans won't pay more than £20 when they visit the Madejski it's a bit of a joke.'

Robbie Nicholas added: 'Any team that doesn't do the Twenty's Plenty back for us, can we charge their fans what we get charged?'

Paul Williams fumed: '£33 to sit in a shed where you may not even be able to see the near goal. It's as if QPR are trying to stop away fans coming.'

A number of clubs have followed Reading's example and signed up to the Twenty's Plenty scheme, while Ipswich want to introduce a £25 cap, which is still an improvement the £32 that is normally paid by visiting supporters to Portman Road.

Meanwhile, the Premier League introduced a cap on away tickets last season which will see no away supporter charged more than £30 to see their team on their travels.

That, though, raises even further questions of why fans of Championship clubs pay more to see their team play away from home than their top-flight counterparts.

Furthermore, Stoke City have continued their initiative by encouraging fans to attend away matches by offering free travel for the fifth consecutive year.

The gesture has gone down extremely well and has seen a big improvement in away attendances by the Stoke fans in particular.

Tony Scholes, Chief Executive at Stoke, explained: "Last season we took an average of 1,896 fans to away games, an increase of 40% on the away support we took to games before we introduced free travel.

"Before 2013, we were taking an average of three or four official supporters' coaches to away games but now we're taking an average of 14 coaches to each game.”