Football programme

The purchase of a football programme has long been part of the 'ritual' of attending a football match in Great Britain, along with a pint and/or a pie. Due to their initial expendable nature (like the ticket) it took many decades for the format to gain respectability as a collectible. It has come into its own in recent decades with the advent of television and the sport turning professional. It is now quite common for a 1920s FA Cup Final programme to fetch in excess of £1000 at auction houses such as Sotheby's or Bonhams with said sale receiving national press coverage. Everton was the first club to produce regular match programmes.

The programme started life around the late 1880s as a scorecard which would have been a single card or sheet with dateline, team names and player positions. Aston Villa were one of the first clubs to publish a programme with their The Villa News and Record which from the outset almost encouraged collecting as it was in the form of a journal with a different number and volume for each season and week respectively; by 1946 for instance it was up to number 33. Of real interest for the collector however has always been the FA Cup Final programme; over the years there have been many attractive covers and the design often reflecting the age with the late 1920s and 30s examples bearing art deco style for example.

It is understood that pre-war and early 1950s programmes are rarer due to recycling for paper shortages as part of the war effort and times of post-war austerity. The size of the programme has increased over the decades from the convenient pocket size to A4 but many clubs in the early 21st century have reverted to a more convenient size. The FA Cup Final however has retained its inconvenient size (even acknowledging this by coming with a customary carrier bag in recent years.)

Modern programmes have far more pages than their earlier 4 or 8-page predecessors and are generally full colour and glossy. With the logistics and requirements of modern production (programmes are often printed beyond a club's locality for example), the product has long been of little help in accuracy of the 'field of play' although the advent of squad numbers has at least ensured the likelihood of all names being present. The programme for Duncan Edwards debut for Manchester United in the early 1950s for example does not bear his name at all.

Certain clubs have a programme shop but these are few and far in between usually independent traders must be relied on. ebay has proved a good source now for the collector as due to the sheer saturation of armchair sellers the prices have been forced down. Dealers and collectors alike can still pick up bargains however even in rarities due to shortfalls in description for example.

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Wikipedia