Football programme

Last updated April 01, 2019

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. Collecting programmes became a common hobby among fans during the 1960s and from then on a number of specialist dealers began to appear.^[1] 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 FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It is one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 at the 2017 final. The match is the culmination of a knockout competition among clubs belonging to The Football Association in England, although Scottish and Irish teams competed in the early years and Welsh teams regularly compete, with Cardiff City winning the Cup in 1927 and reaching the final in 1925 and 2008.

Sotheby's is a British-founded American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. One of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewelry, real estate, and collectibles, Sotheby's operation is divided into three segments: auction, finance, and dealer. The company's services range from corporate art services to private sales. It is named after one of its cofounders, John Sotheby.

Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought together two of the four surviving Georgian auction houses in London, Bonhams having been founded in 1793, and Phillips in 1796 by Harry Phillips, formerly a senior clerk to James Christie. Today, the amalgamated business handles art and antiques auctions. It operates two salerooms in London—the former Phillips sale room at 101 New Bond Street, and the old Bonham's sale room at the Montpelier Galleries in Montpelier Street, Knightsbridge—with a smaller sale room in Edinburgh. Sales are also held around the world in New York, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, and Singapore. Bonhams holds more than 280 sales a year in more than 60 collecting areas, including Asian art, Pictures, motor cars and jewellery. It has sales in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Sydney. Bonhams has more than 550 staff with some of the world’s leading specialists in their fields.

History

Programme for a match played at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 9 October 1875 between home side Queen's Park and the Wanderers from London. It mentions the visiting club first and identifies individual players not by jersey numbers but by the colours of their stockings or caps. QPWanderers.jpg — Programme for a match played at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 9 October 1875 between home side Queen's Park and the Wanderers from London. It mentions the visiting club first and identifies individual players not by jersey numbers but by the colours of their stockings or caps.

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.

The Villa News and Record is the official programme of Aston Villa F.C..

It is understood^{[ by whom? ]} 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^{[ according to whom? ]} 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.^{[ citation needed ]}

Duncan Edwards was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid-1950s, playing 177 matches for the club. One of eight players who died as a result of the Munich air disaster, he survived initially but succumbed to his injuries in hospital two weeks later.

In June 2018, clubs in the English Football League voted to end the requirement for programmes to be produced for every game.^[2]

The English Football League (EFL) is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League.

Collecting

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.

Notable programmes

One of the most sought-after of all programmes is the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final but as it was mass-produced it is not as rare or expensive as one would imagine; however its purchase is littered with potential minefields. There have been at least two reprints, with the original being heavier than the reprints at 130 grams and the inside advert for Player's No. 6 is notably different. The blue of the Union Jack on the cover is darker too.

The programme for the first ever FA Cup Final held in Wembley in 1923 is much rarer and would typically cost over £1000; similarly the 1927 one is much sought after as it was the first and so far only time that the Cup 'left England', being won by Cardiff City.^{[ citation needed ]} The most expensive Wembley FA Cup Final programme by far, is the 1924 edition, as only a few remain because the Final was played in torrential rain and fans used the programme to cover from the conditions. The programme has reached £4,500 on the few occasions it's been offered at auction.

Some of the more recent Cup Final programmes are considered rare, notably the 1993 replay, and 1996 legend has it that the surplus copies were burned.^{[ citation needed ]} They have been known to sell for anything between £60 and £100.^{[ citation needed ]}

Perhaps the most famous club programme is the Manchester United v Sheffield Wednesday FA Cup game in February 1958. This was United's first game after the tragic Munich Air Disaster and out of respect the United team layout was left blank.

A football programme from the 1882 FA Cup Final between Blackburn Rovers and Old Etonians sold at auction for a world record of £35,250.^[3] The programme was sold by Sotheby's in May 2013 to Old Etonians Football Club. The previous record for a football programme was for the 1909 FA Cup Final contested between Manchester United and Bristol City.^{[ citation needed ]} It was sold on 15 May 2012 for £23,500 at Sotheby's by Graham Budd Auctions.^{[ citation needed ]}.

The programme for the 1973 European Cup Final between Ajax and Juventus is also rare, with only 400 produced.^[4]

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References

↑ Cox & Vamplew (2002). Encyclopedia of British Football. UK: Psychology Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-0714652498.
↑ Law, James (8 June 2018). "EFL clubs vote to end compulsory matchday programme publication". BBC Sport. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
↑ "One of the most expensive football programmes ever sold". Mature Times. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
↑ "Football programme dealer Steve Earl selling million programmes". BBC News. 1 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.

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[1] Cox & Vamplew (2002). Encyclopedia of British Football. UK: Psychology Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-0714652498.

[2] Law, James (8 June 2018). "EFL clubs vote to end compulsory matchday programme publication". BBC Sport. Retrieved 5 July 2018.

[3] "One of the most expensive football programmes ever sold". Mature Times. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2018.

[4] "Football programme dealer Steve Earl selling million programmes". BBC News. 1 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.