Commentators are in agreement that British football is facing a growing debt crisis. Recession, tighter credit and growing debt encumbrance are finally catching up with English Premier League clubs. And that’s aside from the various tabloid scandals which have afflicted the country’s top players.

In contrast, the annual report of the German Bundesliga makes a reassuring read. The total debt of all 36 clubs, including those of Bundesliga 2, is about £600 million (€684 million), a figure Manchester United’s supporters will recognise as being just £125 million (€143 million) short of their club’s burden – that’s just one British club.

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But the Germans finest achievement is a table showing their admission prices to be the lowest among the top five divisions in Europe. No prizes for guessing whose stadiums are the most expensive to enter. Yes: the UK’s, it costs £37.30 (€42.50), on average, to watch the Barclays Premier League while the Bundesliga charges less than half that. Many in Britain could fly to Germany and back and spend less money than if they went to a local match. A German average match attendance of 41,904, compared with the Premier League’s 35,592, means they must be doing something right.

There’s also the fact that every minute of every match played by the national team must be shown live on free-to-view television. Meanwhile, the Premier League’s next television deal is expected to raise more than £1 billion (€1.14 billion) a year, or £50 million  (€57 million) a club. Even more money to waste on wages, commissions, accountants, lawyers...

But the English Premier League would make a poor show on television when the stadia are not full. The obvious way around this is to offer a certain number of tickets for future matches at a discount, if a team is suffering empty seats. Additionally, a cap on ticket prices would not threaten the Premier League's status as the world's best league. German stadia charge more realistic prices because the game is "for the people". Admittedly the technical standard may not be as high as that of the Premier League, but that just makes the greed of the English game stand out as the worse example.

UEFA is seeking to devise a system under which book-balancing is a prerequisite for participation in European competition. That seems to be the only hope of salvation for UK fans at present. But perhaps as, as one commentator believes, it would be far simpler if every British club simply joined the Bundesliga.