A few months ago I met a most interesting gentleman on FB. I can’t claim to be a devotee of the platform nor its enigmatic Mr Zuckerberg but meeting O-M made up for the breakfast photos and Magat posts. You want me to block you? Share a Magat lie, a voxista mantra or anything positive about the Tories.

O-M has a fascinating project and I was delighted when he let me get involved. He explains, “Right (said Fred)… I started collecting programmes back in 1979. A friend of mine gave me a birthday present: 1974 Southampton v Chelsea programme. I got hooked instantly. At that time I was about one of the three people (that I knew of) who collected programmes in Finland. Anyhow, the number of people collecting in Finland has not increased too much. I have always been the village fool and annoying person asking for favours. First we went to the local bank to exchange money. We got two pounds every time, ordered about 10 programmes and were happy with that. Also ordered some bundles from Steve Earl. Later I started to concentrate on some particular teams, Liverpool, FC Cologne, Hammarby and also Finnish teams in Europe as well as Finnish national team.

However, I have always collected everything. So, one night about 2-3 years ago I did an Excel spreadsheet as I wanted to get one programme form every 92 league club. Sounded like an easy task. Until I did that spreadsheet. Well, here we are. I am very willing to give plenty of Finnish programmes if there’s someone interested.”

So, O-M’s project is very simple or is the word “easy?” In a nutshell, he wants to collect ONE programme per club per season from 1967-68 until 2016-2017. basic maths is 92×50 =4600 programmes. O-M is then digitalising them for posterity and creating a unique history of the Beautiful Game. But more …. it is a social history. The boom in attendances after the 1966 World Cup, the afternoon games during the three-day week, the Thatcher years and the hatred she spread, Heysel, Hillsborough and the Taylor Report going through to New Labour and Cool Britannia.

I could not not wait to be involved and have been collecting for a couple of months now. I have probably 300 going off this week and hopefully the same next week. I think we both see the “end” in sight so I am reaching out to any of you who would like to help him. If you can fill any of the gaps, he’d be delighted to hear from you. He’s asking for nothing for free and is happy to offer Finnish programmes in exchange. Equally I am happy to offer 2 or 3 for 1 for every gap we fill. Therein lies one of the challenges. The first time I walked into a Post Office in London, the guy shook his head and said £72! Postage is expensive to Finland and there are customs/taxes to be paid there too. (Brexiteers repent!) So, the easiest is to send it to me from the UK and I will send forward yours together with all the others. I have found a “PostMySuitcase” service at £24 for up to 20kgs to Finland so that’s my preferred method. In the UK, the best value is probably DPD “Shop to Shop” at £2.99+vat for 10+ programmes or Royal Mail for any less. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not use Evri. The service here in London is worse than diabolical. Likewise O-M will send one parcel to me and I will forward it to you. Please email me at steve {.at}theshirt2010.co.uk or catch O-M direct on FB

Of course, there is a whole story more about whether programmes are dead or an integral part of the matchday experience! See The Guardian