Football Souvenirs
Whenever people go out, they often like to bring something home to remind them of their visit. Pebbles from the beach, T shirts with place names or sticks of sweet rock are typical examples of this habit. So, it’s no surprise that they like to purchase football souvenirs that remind them of their visits to matches.
Underlying this practice is also a strong desire for fans to display their support for a particular team in public, not least to impress rival team supporters. It is this behaviour that mainly accounts for the multimillion pound football souvenir industry. Centred on items of clothing such as team shirts with players’ names printed on the back, and extending to full replica kits, this is a major revenue source for clubs.
In the past, the football souvenir industry was based mainly on team scarves and woolly hats which helped stave off the chilly winter weather along with copies of match programmes with information on the relevant teams and their fixtures.
However, this has now mushroomed to become a full-scale commercial business with many clubs now operating their own on-site shops and online outlets, where you can buy anything from club calendars, badges, cuddly toys and, of course, the full current strip of home and away clothing.
Other souvenirs are more esoteric. For instance, when Arsenal in the UK Premier League, moved ground from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, fans bought up the club’s grass turf, presumably for their gardens, and those noisy vuvuzelas at the recent World Cup in South Africa are being trumpeted at many grounds.
