Football Memorabilia Ancient and Modern


Sports memorabilia is one area where there is little disparity of price between the modern collectible and the antique item and the world of football memorabilia is no exception. While antique football programmes may attract some serious interest, so will the football boots, shirts and shorts worn by stars from the latest season. The general trend in football memorabilia is that prices are rising pretty steeply. Last year, Christie’s sold a pair of David Beckham’s football boots for £14,000 ($24,000). The result of this steep rise in the cost of football memorabilia is that people are limited in what they can collect. This is forcing them to specialise in certain areas like programmes, medals or jerseys and to therefore buy from all different periods of football history.

Bonhams & Brooks Sports Memorabilia sale on December 18-19 2000 brought together over 900 items of great football memorabilia, both ancient and modern. An item to really excite the young enthusiasts at the sale was a Michael Owen 1998 World Cup Finals shirt which sold for £300 ($480). For the Manchester United fans there was a collection of fifteen home club programmes covering the years 95-96 and 98-99 which were all autographed on the team pages and covers and valued at £180. There were also two large albums of signed pictures and photographs from the past twenty seasons which sold for £150. One of the most surprising highlights of the sale was a Sunderland shirt from the 1992 FA Cup Final. The short sleeved V-neck no. 9 shirt with club badge and inscription sold for £300.

From another era of world class football came a collection of autographs from the early 50s. The album included signed sheets, portraits and pictures from Chelsea, Birmingham and Coventry City Football Clubs and was sold for £120. There were also some good prices for some relatively low-profile items. A single programme autographed by 33 players from the 1946 CMF Combined Services v BAOR Combined Services match in Antwerp sold over the estimate for £95 and a pair of unworn Mansfield Hotspur boots circa 1940 sold for £50.

British Football Programmes


The market in football memorabilia is currently going through the roof - with soccer collecting beginning to match the global popularity of the beautiful game itself. Football matchday programmes are a great place to start collecting soccer memorabilia - with examples to suit every sort of purse. Many can be picked up for a £1 ($1.60) or less - whilst at the other end of the market a programme for the 1915 wartime F.A. Cup Final between Chelsea and Sheffield United is currently valued at a cool £12,000 ($19,000).

Match programmes have been produced for pretty much every football game ever played - including friendlies. Thus, the programme for the friendly match played between Everton and Glasgow Celtic at Anfield on April 5 1890 recently sold for £2,000 ($3200) at auction. Incredibly, the programme from Everton's 1889 friendly with Newton Heath at Anfield is valued at £10,000+ (£16,000+). The reason? Well, shortly afterwards Newton Heath changed their name to Manchester United and the rest is soccer history. Even programmes for Manchester United's F.A. Cup Final appearances in the late 50s are today valued at £40 ($60) - more than double what they have been making in recent years.

Football programmes normally include photographs, advertisements, editorial comment and plenty of statistical information and make a nice souvenir of a great day out. Some football enthusiasts focus on collecting the programmes of a particular team - both home and away matches - or cup competition - F.A. Cup or European cup finals. Serious collectors of football programmes usually avoid the habit of writing the match result or goalscorers on the printed team sheet - this practice can devalue programmes substantially. Early programmes tend to be the scarcest and worth the most money. Unsurprisingly, Manchester United are easily the most collected team nowadays - with armchair fans from Torquay to Tokyo. Another collected team are the London giants, Arsenal. A programme for Arsenal's away fixture at Aston Villa in the 1907/08 season retails at around £250 ($400). New programmes can usually be bought on subscription from the clubs themselves. Old programmes can be acquired in a number of ways - from dealers, at collector fairs, over the Internet and so on. Prices look set to continue rising for the foreseeable future.