Revealing its decision at the start of August, the club said rising production costs and the considerable effort involved in providing printed programmes had made it necessary to switch to a digital publication.

Chris Ammonds, the club’s chairman, said: “This decision has not been taken lightly and we accept that some supporters are likely to be unhappy about it.  

“However, as a board we have to look at the wider picture and taking into account the increasing costs and the fact we have only been selling around 200 programmes at each home game for the past couple of seasons, we feel that from a financial perspective this is the right thing to do.”

Hereford FC, currently in the National League North, employed specialist football programme design house JJ Sports Promotions to produce its programmes.

Terry Brumpton, JJ Sports Promotions’ MD, told Printweek that the decision was an isolated one.

“I haven’t found it common at all [for clubs to go digital-only,] and a lot of the clubs we deal with still produce printed programmes.”

Emailed to season ticket holders and those who have bought tickets in advance, Hereford FC said its new format will allow the club to reach significantly more fans – and also open up better advertising opportunities for the club’s commercial team.

The club said the decision would not impact its ability to print souvenir programmes for larger games.

Since 2019, it has not been a requirement of English Football League games to print a physical matchday programme, and during the pandemic a number of smaller clubs ceased production of printed programmes.