2 Arsenal Pirates0001

These are two different unofficial "pirate programme" covers from the 1948 F. Charity Shield between the winners of the F.A. Cup in 1948 Manchester United and Arsenal winners of the First Division in season 1947-8. This match was played the following season in 1948-9 and Arsenal were the winners by 4-3.

Unofficial programmes or "Pirate" programmes were sold by vendors outide the grounds hoping to catch the supporters out, and may times they were the same price as the clubs official programme but the content was poor and in many cases what content there was had nothing to do with the game!, it was just the cover many times that had the link to the game you were attending. For many years this type of item was not considered collectable, but nowadays just the opposite!