A football programme or a match programme is a term in football used to describe a booklet that is bought by spectators before a football game. This booklet contains vital information about the game including but not limited to short articles by commentators and lists of players.
Older football programmes are now considered collectible items and come with considerable value. In fact, it is very common that a programme from the FA Cup Final in the 1920s can cost not less than £ 1,000 and those that are from the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final in 1913 can be sold for more than € 2,000.
History of the Football Programme
Making a programme for a football match was first documented in October 9, 1875. This was during a match in Hampden Park. The programme included the names of the players, their numbers and the colors of their caps and stockings.It was not only in the late 1880s when the making of a football programme started to become popular. The first ones made during this time looked like a scorecard that displayed player positions, team names and dateline. Aston Villa and West Midlands were the first clubs to published their programme in a public journal. Over the years, there was great improvement when it comes to the design covers and content.
During the pre-ward years up to the early 1950s, the popularity of the programmes declined because of the shortage of paper. After this period, its popularity rose again and changes were seen, like an increased in paper size.
At present, football programmes come with more pages as compared to the older ones. These boast glossy paper and full colors and have were required in tournaments. In mid-2018, the members of the English Football League voted against requiring production of football programmes.