DEATH OF THE FOOTBALL PROGRAMME?

I couldn't believe it when I read the English Football League is considering freeing clubs from their obligation of producing a matchday programme for every game.

WHAT A DISASTER!!!!

The rising costs and declining sales amongst clubs outside the Premier League are forcing them to think of ditching their programmes.

But even in today's digital age, the football programme still plays an iconic part of going to see a match. As a souvenir of the day, a collectable of the future and a handy way of catching up with everything about your club without trawling through the internet for ages.

I recently bought a whole collection of programmes off someone, over 650 in all, dating from the late 1950s to the early 2000s, from nearly every League club.

And they are fantastic! 
A snapshot of that club at that particular time in history.
From some very basic efforts, with barely a paragraph of text throughout, the teams for that match and a League table if you were lucky, to mammoth super-glossy 60-odd page programmes, with everything you ever wanted to know about the Youth team, the opponents and their dogs.

And for me the designs are brilliant to check-out, again from the simple, unfussy programmes of the 50s and 60s, to some crazy 70s typography and illustrations, to the late-90s burst of Photoshop designs everywhere!!

They represent another way to track the social history of this country.

And so they MUST continue, even if it's in a smaller, more affordable format.

Start a campaign today...
SAVE THE FOOTBALL PROGRAMME!



Incidently, I'll be blogging about some of my favourite programmes in the near future, so keep tuned if you are a fan of retro football programmes!!