Football fans will find a European flavour to their matchday programmes in celebration of the Foxes making their UEFA Champions League debut.
Dr Neil Carter, of De Montfort University Leicester (DMU)’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC) is now into his fourth season of writing for the award-winning programme’s history section.
And with City eagerly awaiting the group stage draw for the Champions League on August 25, ahead of the first round of matches in September, Neil will also be writing in the programmes for European matches, too.
His latest series will start with the story of the origins of football in Europe, which began with British expats and Anglophiles in the 19th century.
Dr Carter said: “Football has been one of Britain’s most durable exports. In the 19th century, there were many Anglophiles who wanted to adopt the sport, and clubs began to form where expats would play football and cricket, with the locals gradually joining in.”
Cricket may not have captured the European imagination but life without football is unthinkable now. “The early clubs, where tradesmen, teachers and businessmen would play, laid the groundwork for the later popularisation of football in Europe,” said Dr Carter.
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Personalities such as Hans Gamper, a Swiss national who founded FC Barcelona, and Vittorio Pozzo – who led Italy to World Cup victory twice in the 1930s – will also be profiled in the coming season.
John Hutchinson, the club’s official historian and archivist, said the emphasis and coverage given to club history and heritage was a key part of the CITY matchday programme. He said: “I don’t think any other programme carries articles quite like these.”
The team at CITY Magazine are celebrating after been named Premier League Programme of the Year by Sports Trader and the Soccer Club Swap Shop.
It is the fourth year running that CITY has been named programme of the year by Soccer Club but the first time it has been awarded the accolade by Sports Trader, formerly known as The Football Trader and Collectable.
Inside the April/May 2016 edition of Sports Trader, which announced the awards, judges stated that: “The programme for Leicester City is one to be beaten and although a few clubs did not enter our competition this year from the Premier League, I’m sure that they still would have found it extremely tough to beat this club’s programme.
“It’s crisp, informative and generally a damn good read – and one worthy of winning the competition this year for the Premier League category.”
Posted on Friday 19 August 2016