It has been a hectic few days and as well as training, packing and generally making myself ready for the next four months on the road, I have been seeking “sponsors” and “friends”. It is clear that we live in very troubled times and finding anybody to fund the project has proven impossible. I have not even found anybody who will loan me a bike. However, I have found a number of people who are helping me in an intangible way.

It is always invidious to name name but a number of people quite simply have to be thanked publicly. I have deliberately not put them in any particular order as they are all equally important

1) Pete Clark who is hosting this site
2) Staysure Insurance who have kindly offered to insure me.
3) Glowmark a terrific security product.
4) The Best Of a national company promoting “The Best”
5) Simon Ellinas who has very kindly agreed to do as caricature (as below) to all who become “sponsor of the day”

Guys, I thank you all profusely. Without you this trip would have been impossible. Period. It would be great if all my supporters checked out the sites above to see whether you could have need for their products and services.

Thanks again to all above but I really need everyone’s help and I would ask you whether you would consider becoming the sponsor of the day at just 20GBP. For that you get a guarantee of a minimum 2 hours work from me. Tell me what you want and I will try to assist.

My thought is that for my 20 GBP expenses, I should do two hours work for the sponsor of the day. It could be delivering leaflets, setting up a blog, doing cold calls or door-knocking, training a sales force, showing you how to save money on your phone bills (that should save you the 20 many times over!), washing your car, digging your graden, teaching you English, Spanish or Swedish.

My most “valuable” contribution? We could do a 1-2-1 and when I get to know you I could go through my contact lists (virtual and IRL) and hand-pick 4/5 people to introduce you to. Who wants an intro to Virgin Group or some of the football clubs? Who wants an intro to a quality twitter coach or NLP practicioner? Who wants a free holiday in Spain? Who wants their web-site tidied? Who wants a professional logo? I have the contacts for most things…… Pretty much anything in fact!

I am also looking for accommodation sponsors. If you know of a hotel or hostel that will give me a room, I would be grateful. I am happy to pay for all food and drink at any hotel that offers me a room for a night or more. I am particularly looking for assistance in London, the S.West, Yorkshire and the E.Midlands. Again for the hotel I will offer two hours’ work in the hotel or as per above.

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My name is Steve Hall. I am a Brit who loves football and travel.

In 2010 I cycled to all the 92 football league clubs in England and Wales. I set off in May 2010 and finished on 23rd September. I was met with almost universal kindness, hospitality and friendship.

I had great plans for retracing the route in 2020/2023. Sadly Covid and then a long spell in hospital scuppered my plans. I started a new 90 day trip on 6th January 2024.

I am a seasoned traveller – 50 countries, 700 flights and tens of thousands of miles by rail – but that trip was unique. Was I back in the saddle and cycling? No. Running? No. Horseback/canoes? Dream trips but not this time. No, this one was a digital tuktuk  tour – virtually visiting the many football clubs in England l love so much! Yes, the motorised rickshaw much beloved of travellers in Thailand and India went visiting Old Trafford and Villa Park, Elland Road and St James …. and many, many more! It was a tremendous success. It was a beautiful virtual journey and we raised significant funds for Prostate Cancer UK and my local team here in London, FC Deportivo Galicia. 

Sadly my health is not up to running, cycling, or kayaking any longer BUT it is up to helping my friend O-M on his football project. 

O-M UPDATE

Many of you will know that I have been working with my Finnish friend, O-M Matihalti on his famous social media project that I featured here In a nutshell he is collecting ONE programme PER club PER season from 1967/68 to 2017/2017. This is being preserved as a huge project charting the social -economic, political and, of course, sporting life in England and Wales over those fifty years.

I thought it best if I added an update. We are making great progress although some clubs are much more difficult than others so far.

O-M comments, “Many moons ago I had this brilliant brainstorm of mine of collecting one programme per club per season. Little did I know what a project this would be. Without Steve, whom I got acquainted to back in March of 2024, getting anywhere near finishing the task would have been practically impossible. There’s been plenty of other people helping Steve. One of them is Stephen Morris. (Thanks, we shall meet one day.)

I am eternally thankful for all the help fellow collectors have been giving on the way to finalize the task. Getting back to Steve… he has swapped hundreds of programmes helping me to fill the gaps and scanned an enormous number of programme covers for me. One of the biggest challenges I have found is the high cost of postage to Finland. I can arrange postage to/from here via Steve. I have many thousands of programmes from Finland that l can exchange for my wants. Obviously you are most welcome to visit beautiful Finland …. probably best in Summer!!! Things to be done… are to meet Steve in person (I know he’s deaf but we will get by), to visit a West London programme fair (Hi, Mark, Barry, Lee and Les – Steve has told me a lot about you all so I’d love to visit) and anyone else in the UK who wants to say “hi.” Meanwhile, I will be pleased to help any collector who is interested in Finnish programmes.”

Thanks, O-M. I am really excited to get back to Finland. I was there in 1975 ….. I guess that makes me “old” or “urgammal,” as they say in certain parts of Finland.

We are complete for many clubs including ARSENAL, ASTON VILLA, BLACKPOOL, BOLTON BRENTFORD, BURNLEY, CRYSTAL PALACE, DARLINGTON, EVERTON, FULHAM, GILLINGHAM,IPSWICH, LIVERPOOL, MANCHESTER UNITED, NEWCASTLE UNITED, NORTHAMPTON TOWN, NOTTINGHAM FOREST, PORT VALE, PRESTON, READING, QPR, SHEFFIELD UNITED, SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY, SOUTHAMPTON, STOCKPORT COUNTY, STOKE, SUNDERLAND, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, WATFORD, WEST BROMWICH ALBION, WEST HAM UNITED, WOLVES & YORK

If anybody can fill the gaps on the other clubs please do make contact with me. The hope initially was that people would be keen to take part in the project and would be happy to donate or maybe run with 1×1 exchanges. Sadly, it has not been possible to complete so now I am offering 5×1 with either/any of Premier League, big match, Gillingham, named clubs (most but not all of the 92), non-league, Finnish or Swedish. Can you help?

Those who I would like to applaud publicly are:

Lee Hermitage of NWM Football

Brian at Brian’s Football Memorabilia

Mark Barnes the co-owner of Welling Collectables and of the West London Programme Fairs

… but the biggest, biggest (drum roll, PLEASE) shout out is for Stephen Morris. He has really engaged in the project and diligently searched for dozens of teams for O-M. He has huge stocks of most UK teams and I have always had hugely positive trades with him (both privately and for the project.) Everybody else I have spoken to speaks highly of him too.

He has a terrific offer on currently with a Super 50p Sale. He has tens of thousands of club programmes from the 70s to the 20s all at 50p. As my way of thanking him, if you take 50 programmes at 50p, I will double that with 50 random programmes from my own collection. Seem fair?

Any thoughts, questions, suggestions, kind wishes or, well, anything just get in touch with O-M or me.
Many thanks indeed, to everyone.

Barnsley	13/14
Birmingham	14/15
Blackburn	16/17 15/16
Bournemouth	14/15 13/14 11/12
Bradford C	16/17 11/12
Brighton	13/14 03/04
Bristol C	16/17
Bristol R	15/16 09/10
Bury	16/17
Cambridge U	16/17 14/15 12/13 69/70 68/69
Carlisle	15/16 14/15 05/06
Chester	16/17 12/13 11/12
Chesterfield	15/16
Grimsby	11/12 07/08
Halifax	16/17 14/15 13/14 12/13 11/12 09/10
Hartlepool	16/17 15/16 14/15 13/14 11/12 09/10 01/02
Huddersfield	15/16
Leicester City	15/16
Leyton Orient	15/16
Lincoln	16/17 01/02
Luton	15/16 14/15 13/14 12/13 11/12 04/05
Mansfield	16/17 15/16 13/14 12/13 07/08
Millwall	14/15
Newport Co	07/08 06/07 04/05 99/00 98/99 94/95 93/94 92/93 89/90
Notts Co	16/17
Oxford U	16/17 14/15 06/07
Peterborough	16/17
Plymouth	16/17 14/15 13/14 11/12 09/10
Rotherham	16/17 15/16 14/15
Scunthorpe	12/13 05/06
Shrewsbury	16/17 10/11
Southend	14/15 09/10 04/05
Swansea	05/06 73/74
Torquay	16/17 13/14 11/12 06/07
Tranmere	14/15 11/12
Wrexham	16/17

Remember you can get involved 

Please check through the site to learn more about the project, the people involved and how you can also help and get involved.

Thanks

Steve

As at 30/3/26

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I guess this is where it all starts. I gave my first interview to Keith Nicol for an English-language newspaper, the Euro Weekly News. The weeks of training suddenly all seemed to have a focus. Here we go!

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