One of world’s rarest Manchester United football programmes is top of the league under the hammer

One of the world’s rarest football programmes for a game abandoned due to tragedy has sold for thousands of pounds at auction.

On February 6, 1958 the Munich air disaster took the lives of eight Manchester United players, manager Sir Matt Busby’s Babes. The club’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, scheduled to take place two days later on February 8, 1958, had to be abandoned.

The players died when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt at take off from a snow-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport. The loss of so many players from the legendary young team shocked the world.

Most of the match-day programmes were destroyed. However, 65 years later, one of only a handful left in existence was discovered by auction house Hanson Ross. It had been kept in a bedside drawer in London for decades. It achieved a hammer price of £7,500 at the Hertfordshire saleroom. (Jan 12) The total paid with buyer’s premium by a private UK bidder was £9,840.

Amanda Butler, director of operations at the Royston firm, said: “We are delighted this historically important and rare piece of football memorabilia has achieved the price it deserved.

“The vendor’s uncle worked in the Manchester print shop that made the programmes. Most were destroyed but his uncle kept one and gifted it to our seller. He also gave him a programme for a Manchester United v Nottingham Forest match on February 22, 1958, just a couple of weeks after the disaster. The two were sold together.”

The seller, retired engineer Peter Jackson, 67, from Wembley, London,  parted with the programmes because he wanted to ensure they would never be discarded but treasured forever as a part of Manchester United’s history.

He said: “You get to a time of life when you start thinking about what may happen to things that are important to you. I’m a Manchester United fan and I have owned these programmes nearly all my life so it’s a big deal to let them go. But they’re important and deserve to be preserved.

“They were given to my dad by his brother as a gift for me when I was a small child in the late 1950s. They were always meant for me. When I left home at 18 I took them with me. They have moved house a few times but I’ve always looked after them. They’ve been in a cardboard folder in a bedside drawer.

“I came across them again during a clear out and decided maybe now was the right time to sell. I’ve always known I’d have to let them go eventually.

“My uncle worked in the Manchester printworks that made the programmes and decided to hold on to them. I was born in Stockport but my family moved to London when I was five. My dad and uncle are no longer alive. I think they would be surprised to know how valuable those programmes priced 4d, pennies in 1958, are today.

“I hope they have gone to a Manchester United fan or keen collector who will look after them for years to come to honour the Busby’s Babes who lost their lives.”

Football Memorabilia invited for auction

To discuss a potential consignment or gain a free valuation, please email David Wilson-Turner: dwilsonturner@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk