Collecting Football Programmes And Memorabilia

I do not know the exact date that my Dad took me to see my first football match, perched high on his shoulders, but I know that from then on I was hooked.

The game was at the Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham, Kent, England. Not exactly the San Siro, or Old Trafford, and in those days some of the stands were just like corrugated iron sheds, but football got in my blood, and its stayed there, despite my now living in the football wasteland that is the U.S.A.

Ok, so maybe the Americans are beginning a love affair with The Beautiful Game (or Soccer, as they insist on calling it) but its still only in its early days and there have been several break-ups already. But back to Gillingham, and I still get up very early in my Los Angeles home every Saturday during the season to listen to the commentary of Gillinghams game against Bournemouth, or Chesterfield, or Bradford City.

Again, the opposition is hardly in the league of Inter Milan, Juventus, or Barcelona, but you do not go to see the opposition, you go to support YOUR team and for me that has always been and always will be Gillingham.

From the early days, and at my advanced age, I am talking here about the late 1950s, I collected the programme from the game I went to. In the early days this was often not much more than a list of the players in each team and a few adverts and cost around six old pence, but as the game became more commercial, the programmes developed into glossy magazine-like publications, featuring pen-profiles of each player, notes from the manager/coach, editorial by the club chairman, league tables, interviews with players, fan-profiles (over the years I have been interviewed as supporter of the week/month, on several occasions) and general football chat.

These programmes have become hugely collectable over the years, especially big games, like the F.A, Cup Final at Wembley, or a promotion play-off. Football programme dealers do a roaring business, and then there are auctions. What is the biggest auction site in the world? Yes, eBay, so thousands of programmes change hands every day on that site. So if you are looking for Cambridge United versus Southend, or Aston Villa v Arsenal from 1979, or an obscure programme from Manchester City when they were in Division Two, then eBay is the place to go.

Of course its not just football programmes that are collectible. Scarves, key-rings, shirts, shorts, baseball caps, in fact anything, as long as it has your teams name on it. The most famous, and often most-hated, club in England is Manchester United. Memorabilia of United is the biggest seller on eBay.

Of course, collecting programmes and general soccer memorabilia takes space. When it comes to hiring public storage space to keep your programme collection safe, then perhaps its time to consider selling off some of your precious collection!