Programme

[Andy S]

The cost of the programme goes up every season. My guess is it will be £4 or even £5 this season. I only purchase the first one of the season and that is because it has all the fixtures. It welcomes our new players and publishes all the new shirt numbers. It's very easy to get all this information from the net in this day and age. However there are the managers thoughts that we have read 100 times before as well as the captain telling us what we already know. Would it not be better to give everyone a team sheet when they enter the stadium and help the planet by saving paper. When I first supported our club there used to be a hand book produced at the beginning of every season. Could that not be done again?

[Stevieboy]

The cost of the programme goes up every season. My guess is it will be £4 or even £5 this season. I only purchase the first one of the season and that is because it has all the fixtures. It welcomes our new players and publishes all the new shirt numbers. It's very easy to get all this information from the net in this day and age. However there are the managers thoughts that we have read 100 times before as well as the captain telling us what we already know. Would it not be better to give everyone a team sheet when they enter the stadium and help the planet by saving paper. When I first supported our club there used to be a hand book produced at the beginning of every season. Could that not be done again?

I think the handbook was via the Supporters Club.
I stopped buying programmes years ago when, I think, they were £3.50 so if they are actually only going up now,and not just an assumption, I would think it's about due.

[hovewhite]

Handbooks still printed in county cricket which are free with membership/season ticket.

[EN1 FFC]

I used to like the seasons handbooks during the Al Fayed years when you had all the match facts & reports for the previous season games. Yes most of it got printed in programmes, but it was great to have a reference book to look back on to remember teams, scorers & and the match report.

[filham]

The programme price has actually been held at £3.50 for a few years but I have purchased it out of habit, it serves little real purpose these days.

In the old days you could expect it to give the starting eleven, manager's notes, half time scores, fixtures and a few action pictures, for a very low price, when this information was available from no other source.

Time the programme was scrapped and replaced with a newssheet with a lottery ticket priced at 50p.

[HV71]

The programme price has actually been held at £3.50 for a few years but I have purchased it out of habit, it serves little real purpose these days.

In the old days you could expect it to give the starting eleven, manager's notes, half time scores, fixtures and a few action pictures, for a very low price, when this information was available from no other source.

Time the programme was scrapped and replaced with a newssheet with a lottery ticket priced at 50p.

Spot on - the information in it is already out of date. On top of the fact that the fewer people that buy it means that the price / copy increases  - as the print run decreases .
As an ex publisher this gives me no comfort and is yet another example of the demise of the print medium.

[cookieg]

As far as I can remember it's been £3.50 for years. I get them via subscription but usually read my daughter's copy and keep mine mint. I know I know but it's a habit which I don't want to give up.

[Wolf]

I love the programme, its my only match day tradition. If you're inclined to read the 100 pages of content it is very good, so much more than the simple affairs pre-90s.

It is also bought by many as a match souvenir, and a rather better and more environmentally friendly souvenir than the ubiquitous unofficial Half and Half scarf.

[Rufus Brevetts Tracksuit]

The problem you have with ALL football programmes now is that by the time you read them, they're out of date.

30 years ago, it would have been a football club's main way of communicating with its supporters. Now you have websites, 24 hour news/sport channels, and of course the dreaded social media. Thus a programme which goes to print on, say, Thursday afternoon will have lost some of its relevance when you buy it on the Saturday.

And as they become less relevant, less supporters buy them. And if less supporters buy them, clubs lose money producing them. Not so much of a problem in the Premier League, but it is lower down. For instance, Millwall didn't issue progs last season. They calculated during 2021-22 that only around 8%-10% of supporters regularly bought the programme, and reckoned to have lost about £35,000 by continuing to produce one that season.  For a middle-sized Championship club, that's quite a big hit to take.

[H4usuallysitting]

Couldn't they make the programme edible...the cost of food at the ground is extortionate

[filham]

Couldn't they make the programme edible...the cost of food at the ground is extortionate

It would obviously have to be renamed " Cottage Pie"

[Logicalman]

Couldn't they make the programme edible...the cost of food at the ground is extortionate

It would obviously have to be renamed " Cottage Pie"

They'd have to 'beef' it up a bit though!

[Stevieboy]

Couldn't they make the programme edible...the cost of food at the ground is extortionate

It would obviously have to be renamed " Cottage Pie"

I actually remember the 'Cottage Pie' magazine in the 70s.

[copthornemike]

1)Pint before the match.
2)Stroll through the Bishop's Palace.
3)Stroll past the Johnnie Haynes statue
4)Buy the match programme.
5)With luck not too many in the queue, the reassuring click of the ancient turnstiles.
6) Get to our seat, catch up with the group around us and decide it will be a tough match (more so vs Man City)
7) Half time time spent putting the world to rights, plus an in depth match analysis.
8) Blood pressure gets too high over 90+ minutes.
9) Fulham win 2-1, despite bossing it for the first 75 minutes.
10) Quite a few happy Whites file through the gates.

Item 4) part of the match day experience, despite seriously questioning it afterwards, particularly if we lose :-( (scratch item 9).

[Ludlow Richard]

I found myself wondering whether a club is required to issue a match day programme. A quick surf through the FA Rules and Regulations confirms that clubs are required to do so. Rule 8.14 states:

"The home Club is responsible for publishing a full match programme acceptable to the Board for each
of its Competition matches. [A full match programme available electronically only shall be acceptable
providing that each Club has approval from the Board before the commencement of the Playing
Season and must be continuous for the whole of that Playing Season.] A Team Sheet will not be considered
sufficient to comply with this Rule.

The visiting Club must send in writing to the home Club details of the proposed team they plan to field
together with their Club history and up-to-date pen pictures of their current Players registered with the
Competition for the season [and the latest team photograph] at least five days before the scheduled
date of the match between the two Clubs.

The home Club programme must include the details sent by the visiting Club in the match day programme
[and a copy of each match day programme shall be sent by the home Club to the Competition
Secretary within 3 days of the match with the relevant match report form unless advised of an alternative
arrangement by the Competition Secretary.]

Clubs will be responsible for all comments in their match day programme in respect of the Competition,
the Company or other member Clubs, notwithstanding any disclaimers to the contrary. No part of a
Club's programme issued for a match in any competition shall, in the opinion of the Board, bring the
Competition or the Company into disrepute"