It has been a pleasure to look through all the Premier League programmes for 2019/20. Once again, the standard has been very high and choosing between the issues has been a challenge!
Given the high quality and consistency of this season’s programmes we have made a slight change to our scoring system, scoring each of the four categories out of ten rather than five as we did in the first two years of our awards. This has enabled us to more clearly differentiate between the issues this season, helping us to recognise those programmes that stand out from the crowd.
After reviewing each issue, and carefully considering the marks given in each category, we are delighted to announce that our 2019/20 winners are Norwich City.
The Canaries have issued a strong programme for many years, with their issues in the Championship in the last few years drawing much deserved praise. On their return to the Premier League they have produced an outstanding programme, packed full of engaging content in the form of historical features, columns, and articles on present day matters. Their coverage of Norwich’s matchday opponents is the best in the league, providing a comprehensive look at the visiting club.
The Canaries’ programme is also well designed, with the club’s familiar yellow and green colours used attractively throughout. In addition, the cover of Norwich’s issues this season have sported various eye-catching designs showing present day players in retro kits, which you can read more about here. Perhaps most impressive is the level of club coverage in each issue, with in-depth content on the club’s community work complementing the coverage of the club’s teams at all levels. This is a programme that showcases a club that is clearly an integral part of its local community. We congratulate Norwich on their Gold Award. The team behind the programme deserve great credit for consistently producing such a high-class publication.
This year’s Silver Award winners are Sheffield United – like Norwich, freshly promoted from the Championship last season.
The Blades have produced a terrific issue, containing several interesting features with some fine historical articles. The issue benefits from simple, clean layouts, with some impressive design touches in the retro articles and the visitors’ section.
Our Bronze Award for 2019/20 goes to Bournemouth, who we also recognised in our inaugural awards two seasons ago.
The club has produced an impressive programme for each of their five seasons in the top-flight since promotion in 2015. We really enjoyed reading the retro articles in this year’s issue, with ‘Picking the Cherries’ being a fascinating series. As with our other award winners, the Bournemouth issue is well designed, with the visitors’ section a real highlight.
It is worthwhile also saying a big “well done” to all the clubs in the Premier League this season for the quality of their matchday issues. Although some programmes have scored more highly than others in our points system, it is worth stressing that there is no such thing as a poor programme in the league. The scores we have given are naturally a reflection of our personal preferences and the things that we consider to be most important in a good programme. Even those issues that ended up with the lowest overall scores this season have qualities for which they should be commended and the teams behind them should be proud of their programmes. We can’t wait to see what the 2020/21 season brings!
You can read all our 2019/20 reviews here and find more information about the way the programmes are marked here.