Starting a football programme collection

To effectively start a football programme collection, a person needs to choose a specialism to his or her collection. There are thousands of football programmes available in Britain, and even more worldwide. To give a collection some sort of meaning a theme ought to be adopted to avoid needless accumulation and to keep to a designated budget.

Sometimes you come across a football programme that joins or crosses two themes at once. These may prove to be valuable acquisitions in years to come as they represent a special or historical occasion, which will muster memories for soccer fans from across the globe in the future.

A football programme is a good way to record a memorable event at a particular match. This could come in the form of an achievement such as a player milestone, which is featured in the programme. 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 others.

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

A very valuable set of football programmes to own are those related to the Munich Air Disaster involving the Man Utd team and Busby’s Babes. The programme from the game against Partizan Belgrade who Manchester United were playing on the tragic trip can sell for over £1000. A similar amount can be achieved for the programme against Sheffield Wednesday straight after the disaster, where the team list wasn’t filled in for the Manchester United team.

Notable occurrences are usually reflected in the content and style of the programme. Important football 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 easily available with interesting articles and historical information, making them a gem in any football programme collection.

Programmes can mean different things to different collectors. You may value one programme highly due to entirely personal reasons and memories which they may conjure up. For other collectors the pursuit is one of passion, finding out more about the history and traditions of a football team that they follow. Whatever your reason, collecting football programmes is a very rewarding hobby, and comes highly recommended to any soccer supporter.