Academic Text 2 - The Advertising of Football

The Football Programme A History and Guide, John Litster , (2000), Gloucestershire, Tempus Publishing Limited, The First Football Programmes, page 7 - 21

Advertising of Football
I have chosen this book because it tells the history of what people did and still do to remember the greatest emotional exhilarating games of football that have been recorded and played through out the decades. The remembrance and media distribution of football first began in Sheffield in 1862 when they played against Hallam, it was one of the first-ever football games to be recorded in a newspaper. Soon after the first recording more matches were played and then published in newspapers but mostly only the really important games were distributed such as the games during the FA Cup. Because of the popularity, posters were printed to show the next up coming games, inviting hundreds of people to come watch. And from then on there was a massive breakthrough in football advertising community, collectible objects were being made ranging from tokens, stamps and coins to stickers, trading cards and team posters. Further more the media distribution world had expanded as well, in which football would appear on almost anything such as in magazines, on the radio, on food and drink packaging (most popular being Coca Cola), on the side of buses and in today's world on television and the Internet. Football advertising is now so huge that entire magazines (such as FourFourTwo or World Soccer), books (like Football for the brave by John Cartwright), TV programs (for instants Match of the Day), films (e.g. Bend it like Beckham) and websites are devoted to it.