You have to go way back to Victorian times to find the first examples of football programmes. This was the time the Football League was founded and these printed programmes were fairly simple, generally a single sheet with team players and their positions on the pitch. These were primarily a way for clubs to get added revenue and usually depended on finding a local printer who was willing to support provide programmes at a knock down price. As the popularity of the Football League began to grow, however, fans started to look for more information than just a standard team sheet.
Clubs like Aston Villa began to produce a more serious newsletter shortly before the turn of the century and others started to follow suit. With thousands attending matches on a Saturday afternoon, it made sense to give fans something more substantial.
Prior to World War I most large clubs were bringing out 6 to 8 page programmes that had better content and drawn images of players, printed by a local company. Programmes were printed on fairly cheap paper in those days and they didn’t start to become collector’s items until much later. The most popular programmes, and most sought after, from this time were those for events such as the FA Cup Final.
Advertising in Football Programmes
Advertisers, from an early time, became interested in using football programmes to reach a wider audience. They began to offer money to help with the print costs if they could put an advertisement in, something which almost certainly increased the number of pages that a club would include simply because it boosted their revenue. This in turn meant that clubs had to put more information besides advertising in programmes, including profiles of players and news reports of previous games.
During World War II there were severe paper shortages that impacted on printing companies and meant programmes weren’t produced in large amounts. This continued until way after the end of hostilities. It wasn’t until the fifties that collectable football programmes became popular and by the time we reached modern times, a great deal of thought was going into what was written. It wasn’t until the early seventies that programme collecting became popular and the value of rare ones started to be the dream of every serious fan.
The creation of the Premiership meant that clubs were starting to produce more professional, glossier programmes.
Printing process have advanced dramatically in the last decade or so with higher quality papers and better designs. Journalists were hired to write articles and professional photographers were taken on to provide images for each publication. Advertising changed from small local businesses to larger corporations with a global reach. While in the early part of the 20th century you were likely to see adverts for local cycling and piano companies, nowadays, particularly in the higher leagues, it’s sports companies such as Nike and Reebok that are more likely to be advertising.