In the third part of a series on investing for fun, BBC News Online looks at the money that can be made from sports memorabilia. For many people it may seem laughable to put the words "football" and "investment" together in the same sentence.

But one area where football has proved a shrewd investment is in the field of memorabilia.
The huge growth in the game's popularity has been matched by growing prices of collectable items.

And football is not the only sport to attract a collectors market with golf, cricket, tennis and fishing antiques all in demand.

Tuesday 21st September 2004

Christie's sale of Football Memorabilia was held at South Kensington and realised strong results. Part of the sale included the Bobby Murdoch Collection which sold for a total of £49,481. The top lot of the collection was his 1968 European Cup winner's medal, which sold for £17,925. The majority of his medal collection, including this lot, was bought by Wille Haughey, the Glaswegian businessman.

The last ever Celtic shirt worn by Henrik Larsson sold for £3,346 at the same sale, while the Stewart McKimmie Collection realized £8,349, his 1984 European Supercup winner's medal fetching £1,314.

Established in 1979, the National Soccer Hall of Fame houses an extensive archive of memorabilia associated with soccer in the United States.

“Dedicated to the sport of soccer in America by celebrating its history, preserving its legacy, inspiring its youth and honoring its heroes, for generations to come.”

From april 10th until the 10th of july there is an exhibition called "feyenoord in Orange" at the Feyenoord stadium '' De Kuip" in Rotterdam, Holland

The exhibition is about feyenoord players who played in the Dutch national team for the last 80 years.

There are shown a lot of Holland shirts as you can seen on the pictures..
A dream to every holland collector, to have a collection that goes 80 years back..

The article is in dutch,but pictures say more then a thousend words

In a car park somewhere in the North of England a man paces up and down speaking earnestly into his mobile phone.

This is George. It's not his real name because he is an undercover investigator for British sportswear manufacturers Umbro, dedicated to defending the branded England football shirt against counterfeiters.

The Ajax Museum in the Amsterdam Arena literally pictures the story and shows both the first scrimmages on a little pitch on the outskirts of Amsterdam around 1900 and the now legendary European Cup matches that kept millions of television viewers world wide glued to their screens.

by Rex Halahana 

I am a life long Arsenal fan and as the new season kicks off and excitement builds I started thinking to myself; Why am I so connected to this club and the players?I have never met any Arsenal players or staff, yet we have an unspoken bond, a bond that is shared by millions of other football fans all over the world.

The countries and the teams may change but the fanatical following stays the same. We share in the their elation and we feel their pain. Over the past year or so I have started to collect certain items related to Arsenal Football Club. I have a couple of signed shirts, an autographed art print and countless match day programmes that a friend has supplied me with over the last few seasons.
Why do I collect these things? Good question. I have no clear answer, but I am going to try and find out.