9:51am Wednesday 14th April 2010
By Jim Greenhalf
Bradford City’s commercial director Roger Owen wants to sell his collection of football programmes to raise money for the £100,000 Burns Unit Appeal.
There are 242 of them, dating back to a home game against Bury in the old Football League Third Division, on March 8, 1958.
Poignantly, that programme carries a joint appeal by the Football League and Football Association, asking that day’s crowd to give to a bucket collection for the Munich Air Disaster Appeal.
Among Mr Owen’s souvenirs are two 1960 FA Cup programmes when City beat mighty Everton 3-0 and drew 2-2 against a star-studded Burnley side.
In addition there is a programme for the fateful City v Lincoln City match of May 11, 1985, the day of the fire disaster which killed 56 people, and a programme for the re-opening of Valley Parade on December 14, 1986, when City played an England team brought to Bradford by the late Sir Bobby Robson.
Mr Owen, formerly with Morrisons for 34 years, said: “I found the programmes in the garage at home in Bingley. I have no use for them, so it struck me there might be a market for them. At £10 a go, say, that would be a total donation to the Burns Unit Appeal of nearly £2,500. It’s buying a piece of history to enter into the spirit of today’s appeal.”
Most of the early programmes are eight pages and cost threepence. Today’s glossy programmes are 62 pages and cost £2.50. The Bantams World programme for the recent Macclesfield Town match announced that the magazine Programme Monthly had awarded it the League Two ‘Best Read’ accolade for 2009/10.
Mick Lamb, the club’s ticket manager, said the market for old football programmes was slow. He added: “But from the social history point of view they are irreplaceable.’’ The City versus Burnley programme of February 20, 1960, went immediately for a double figure sum. The Burns Unit Appeal now stands at more than £60,000.
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