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 Football Programme Collecting -
Part Two: By D Langston 9th March 2010

So the profile of the match day programme grew but the current evidence tells us that pre second world war little collecting took place. Sure the must have been many fans to held on to programmes and tickets up to the first world war but the fact that these are so scarce now leads me to think football programme collectors were not so avid and the hobby was yet to gain the foundations to help it flourish.

Any foundations on football programme collecting suffered very hard in 1939 when World War Two started. But by then the roots of this hobby had been set, for the big clubs the are plenty of 1930s programmes to be had still and the price range is still within reach of most people. Still collecting a full set from any one season you are sure to come up against a few very scarce issues that will command very high prices if you can find them at all.

During WW2 football managed as well as it could and the seven seasons 1939-1946 provide some very interesting programmes. Mainly single sheet due to the paper shortage but the names that filled those team-sheets often included that footballers rank in the army or navy.