Matchday programme

To some spectators, the purchase of a matchday programme is part of the "ritual" of attending football and hurling matches in Britain and Ireland.

Collecting football programmes became a common hobby among fans in Britain during the 1960s and a number of specialist dealers subsequently began to appear.

[11] In English league football, matchday programmes were used from the late 1880s as a scorecard which would have been a single card or sheet with dateline, team names, player positions and advertising.

[citation needed] Programmes from the 1940s and early 1950s are rarer due to recycling for paper shortages as part of the war effort and times of post-war austerity.

The FA Cup Final programme has, however, retained its larger size (customarily being sold with a carrier bag for this reason).

[13] Following the Munich air disaster in February 1958, Manchester United's planned game against Wolverhampton Wanderers was cancelled and a majority of programmes that had been printed were destroyed.

The previous record for a football programme was for the 1909 FA Cup Final contested between Manchester United and Bristol City.

[19] The official matchday programme for the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final (held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic) was made available in physical form for supporters ahead of the game, either online (via an emailed PDF and follow-up copy send through the postal system) or to purchase at SuperValu and Centra outlets in the competing counties.

[8] The GAA apologised after forgetting to include Clare in the 2022 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final matchday programme's "roll of honour section".