Football Programmes

In general you find four different types of collectors within the football programme enthusiast community. There is the potential collector who has a passing interest in beginning a programme collection, there is the latent collector who collects programmes very sporadically, there is the casual collector who may accumulate programmes without having a specific theme to their collection, and also there is the confirmed collector who has specific aims and regularly tries to acquire programmes in order to enhance his or her collection.

There is no minimum or maximum size to a collection, and the only limitations to it come in the form of your financial restraints. To be a collector, there is no need to own highly sort after programmes, just simply something that brings pleasure or a sense of achievement to the collector. Programme collectors come from all walks of life.

In the early stages of a collection, a collector may try to add everything on offer to their collection as quickly as possible in order to give it some bulk. However, with this comes a loss of tangible meaning, and later when financial restraints may mean a restriction a particular theme will have to be chosen and explored in order to further a collection.

There truly are a limitless number of themes and sub-themes that can be collected. However, there are certain traditions for a basis of a collection, for example all those concerned with a particular club, all those concerned with a particular competition, etc. During the course of a collection a person is likely to experience the joys and pitfalls of acquiring a sought after programme, or the frustration of not being able to find a source for an edition that is key to your collection.

Those collectors who are more causal in their approach to the collecting of football programmes will usually own a small number of special programmes for cup finals or semi-finals for the team that they personally support, internationals, testimonials, special fixtures, or other major cup ties. These can basically be classified in the Big Match type of programme.

If you have a strong affiliation to a particular soccer club your mission in programme collecting may be to simply acquire all editions for your chosen team. In addition to the normal league matches and cup-ties, you may also attempt to collect programmes from friendlies, foreign tours, reserve teams, and youth teams.

One way of increasing the depth and scope of your collection is by setting an earlier date for the time period for which you're collecting. You could for example decide back to 1980, 1970, 1960, etc.

A collector who is fairly neutral in his or her affiliations, and just has a general passion for football will tend to widen the scope of their collection. In these sorts of collections you may find football programmes from a range of clubs at different levels (including non-league). For the more adventurous type of collector, programmes may have been acquired from countries other than his or her own.

Find out more about programme collecting at my football programmes site

To effectively begin a football programme collection, an individual needs to choose a specialisation to his or her collection. There are hundreds of thousands of programmes available in the United Kingdom, and even more worldwide. To give a collection some sort of meaning a theme ought to be adopted to avoid needless accumulation and so as to put the designated budget a collector has to as best use as possible.

Of course, it will sometimes be the case that you come across a programme that joins or crosses two themes at once. These are likely to prove to be valuable acquisitions in years to come as they signify a special or historical occasion, which will muster memories for football fans from across the world in the future.

A football programme is the most easily adaptable element of a football match to celebrate or commemorate a particular event. This could come in the form of some sort of achievement such as a player milestone, which can be featured in the programme itself. A player milestone could come in many forms, such as an appearance record, a goal scoring record, the end of a players career, a number of years of service by the manager, and much more.

The darker side of football is also recorded in editions of match programmes. These historical events again attract collectors who see them as poignant reminders of the past and are sought after and valuable as a result. The disasters a Hillsborough, Ibrox and Bradford have valuable programmes associated with them, not only for the day itself, but also the subsequent commemorative matches.

A notably valuable set of programmes to own are those associated with the Munich Air Disaster involving the Manchester United team and Busby's Babes. The programme from the match against Partizan Belgrade who Manchester United were playing on the tragic trip can sell for over a thousand pounds. A similar sum can be achieved for the programme against Sheffield Wednesday directly after the disaster where the team list wasn't filled in for the Manchester United team.

Notable and celebratory occurrences are usually reflected in the content and style of the programme. Important programmes to get hold of are final matches in an old stadium, or the first issue within a new one. Most programmes of this type are abundant with interesting features and historical information, making them a gem in any soccer programme collection.

Programmes can mean different things to different collectors. The reason why you may value one programme could be due to entirely personal reasons and memories which they may conjure up. For others the pursuit is one of football passion, finding out more about the history and traditions of a football team they support. Whatever your reason, collecting football programmes is a highly rewarding hobby, and comes highly recommended to any football fan.

Find out more about old football programmes at Football programmes website