Welcome to CENTRE SPOT
CENTRE SPOT is a web site devoted to you. The Football Programme Collector. Contained within these pages are thumbnail
views of major, post war, "SEMI-FINAL & FINAL" programmes. They are for your reference only and are not here as an
advertisement for sale.
"FOR REFERENCE ONLY NOT FOR SALE"
These pages are continually being updated so please come back ...!!.
NOTE: There is a lot of peripheral
information becoming available to the match programmes that we all collect i.e. Pirates Programmes, Reprints, Magazines,
Newspaper Issues and Souvenir Programmes.
In most cases there is only one official programme for the match. Centre Spot states "in most cases" because there are
exceptions such as differences to the official programme as in the case of the 1980 European Cup Final "Nottinghagm"
misspelling and correct spelling issues.
Also some matches have a "Stadium" or "Club" edition available on the day as in the case of the 1963 European CWC Cup Final.
These are genuine mistakes and/or genuinely issued 'Programmes' and whatever issue you have it is a valid programme
for the match.
However, exceptions are:
PIRATE & SOUVENIR PROGRAMMES
We all have to understand that the proliferation of Pirate Programmes is undesirable. At least the Victor Printing Co.,
G. P. Abbott and T. Ross, Pirate FA Cup Final Programmes (and many other match types) were sold around the grounds of
Stadiums where the match was being played and subsequently have derived some credibility with collectors. Suspect that the
nearest that most of the modern Pirate Programmes see of the match is the internet.
Centre Spot displays Pirate Programmes "For Reference Purposes Only" and as a safeguard to you the Collector not to be
be sold a Programme wrongly.
REPRINTS
Reprints are problematical in as much as they were not available at the ground on the match day. However, they are still very
collectable but in most cases do not command the same status or value as the original. Such examples are the 1966 World Cup
Final set of Reprints. Some Reprints are almost impossible to tell apart and the 2003 UEFA Cup final F.C. Porto v Celtic reprint is a
prime example. Others are too obvious to require comment and some purported by other collectors to be reprints, for example the 1950 World Cup
Uruguay v Brazil match, we all still have more to learn about.
Where possible Centre Spot displays these Reprints and tries to identify their rarity and comment accordingly.
MAGAZINES
There is an unfortunate growing tendency for Magazine issues to be advertised as "Programmes" where quite obviously they are
not. For matches played in Italy and Spain the issue of a match day Programme is sporadic and more often non-existent. This
is very understandably disapointing for supporters whose club has reached a cup final and no Programme is issued. Some
collectors have taken on the club issued magazine to substitute for the Programme. Such as Hurra' Juventus, Real Madrid Revistas, and Forza Milan
editions. There are many, many more and a few are open for discussion but the majority are not the match day Programme.
Centre Spot also displays these issues but qualifies them as "For Reference Purposes Only" and in the absence of any
programme enters them "For Interest Only."
NEWSPAPER ISSUES
Comments are very similar as for Magazines but in Italy and Spain Newspaper Issues are more relevant as the culture leans
more to buying the newspaper to find out about the match rather than match day programmes.
Centre Spot displays these issues and attempts to provide enough information in those cases where there is clearly no
Matchday Programme as to their relevance.
Please be patient and wait for the information on the pages to load. Only when fully loaded can you activate some of the
roll-overs that are randomly placed all over the site. Look out for the curser changing from an arrow to a hand and you
will see further info automatically displayed.
Not all programmes are perfectly rectangular so where given, all sizing information is based across the centre of the item
and are "Centre Spot's" approximations. Also please note that, although they appear to be, the programmes are not in scale
relative to each other. Some early League Cup Finals and Chelsea programmes are tiny compared to modern issues. By keeping
roughly the same thumbnail size it should give you a clearer view.
Where stated the number of pages (pp.) are inclusive of the front and back covers. So, for example, a two leaf programme
will be stated as having 4 pages.
