The future of the match programme is up for debate

A selection of Athletic match programmes from this season

The days of buying a programme at a match could be numbered for football fans everywhere.

The shouts of programme sellers at Boundary Park (I was one myself back in the late 1970s) have been familiar to Athletic fans for decades as, before the advent of the internet, they sought the chance to see what has been going on behind the scenes at their club.

Match programmes feature comments from managers, players, chairmen and famous supporters within their pages.

But that could all be about to come to an end during the summer.

The English Football League has informed supporters, via football club’s websites, that at a meeting in June, 2018 the issue of producing a programme for each home game will be discussed amid claims that numbers being sold are starting to fall.

Also, the introduction of clubs using social media to get their content out to the fans is also being given as another reason why the publications are becoming surplus to requirements.

In the statement, the EFL have said: “A number of clubs have asked the EFL if the mandatory publication of a match programme can be addressed as a result of an overall decline in sales and the proliferation of digital and social media, which has the ability to deliver the same content in a more cost-effective manner.

"Irrespective of the outcome at June’s AGM, however, the EFL will continue to produce a match programme for its five competition finals – the Carabao Cup, Checkatrade Trophy and Sky Bet Play-Offs.”

A vote will be held at that meeting to decide on the future of the programme.

If it’s decided they should be scrapped, it would bring to an end over 100 years of football clubs producing their own programmes, with many of the ‘special’ editions becoming even more of a collector’s item.