Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It’s a store draw
Dealer puts stock of 1m football programmes up for sale.. but you’ll need a bit of room to keep it
A MILLION football programmes owned by the UK’S biggest dealer are up for sale.
Steve Earl, 67, amassed his stockpile to supply the mail-order business he set up in 1970, advertising for programmes in football magazines Shoot! and Match.
He keeps his hoard in a two-storey warehouse but wants to find a buyer for it because he is suffering from ill-health.
Steve does not have a figure in mind for the collection saying it “is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it”.
He said: “It comes to a point where it doesn’t get any easier. You need to be fit because there’s weight in these boxes.
“I’ve done a good stint so
I think it’s time somebody younger took over. There’s stock that would last anyone 20 years [to read] but they need the space to store the stuff.”
The Norwich City fan’s World Cup programmes stretch from the finals in 1950 and 1966, when England beat West Germany 4-2, to a souvenir for the current tournament in Russia.
He has the 1921 and 1923 FA Cup finals programmes and his rarest comes from the 1973 Ajax v Juventus European Cup final – when only 400 were printed.
Gary Lineker features in Steve’s memento of England v Yugoslavia in 1986, pictured with the Golden Boot he won at that year’s World Cup.
Steve, of Bungay, Suffolk, started collecting in his teens and began trading when his parents gave him £500. To keep his library under control he orders his club programmes alphabetically but ones for specific competitions are
lined up by date.