5) When Saturday Comes
Emerging from the fanzine explosion – though in truth it pre-empted it by a couple of years – When Saturday Comes always carried more weight to the DIY content typically sold outside grounds.
The calibre of writing alone elevated it to another level and with serious subjects explored that approached matters from a fans’ perspective, it has been a valuable resource down the years, as well as a cracking read.
In parts a footballing Private Eye, in other ways the Guardian with a sense of humour, this resilient publication has celebrated the idiosyncrasies of the game, and shone a light on its dark recesses for a generation and more. Long may it continue.
4) 90 Minutes
When 90 Minutes was first published in 1990 off the back of a £10,000 bank loan, the two entrepreneurs behind it – one of whom was Paul Hawksbee, now of talkSPORT fame – pitched it as ‘the serious football weekly’.
With the game becoming a national obsession post-Italia 90, it was a logical niche to inhabit. Yet still, for a good while, in publishing terms the mag was firmly positioned in the Premier League relegation odds, always punching above its weight, until two seismic events altered its destiny.
The first was that IPC took over the reins in 1992, injecting some much needed capital into the endeavour. The second was that in 1994, with Loaded changing all of the rules and Fantasy Football League launching, Statto and all, 90 Minutes went with the times and became more irreverent and funny.
It was all the better for it.
3) Match
From the very off Match went big, launching in 1979 with Kevin Keegan as their cover star and accompanied by a free sticker album. Inside were columns by Ossie Ardiles, Steve Coppell and Brian Clough.
Always intended as a rival to the market-leader Shoot, its mix of interviews, quizzes and lightly humorous tone ensured it became the mag of choice for the cooler kids and older siblings throughout the Eighties, but it was in the Nineties when it reached its zenith.
By 1995, weekly sales were hitting just shy of a quarter of a million.
Still going today, but now squarely aimed at the pre-teens demographic, a newsagent shelf wouldn’t look right minus its colourful, blocky design.
2) Shoot
A staple of kids’ bedroom floors from 1969 to the late 2000s, Shoot was the template from which so many other publications copied.
Its long-running ‘Focus On’ series asked players what their favourite meal was – always steak and chips – and what they’d get up to if they were invisible for the day.
Their iconic league ladders were an absolute joy to put together at the beginning of each season, only to end up in a drawer somewhere forgotten soon after.
Their ‘You Are The Ref’ series, in comic-strip form, was unfailingly a fascinating read.
But consistently, Shoot’s biggest strength was their pulling power, in luring the biggest names of the day to write weekly columns. A shout-out too for their summer specials, essentially double-issues that helped ease the gloom of rainy childhood treks to Tenby.
1) FourFourTwo
The doyen of football magazines and that has remained the case now for 29 years and 341 issues and counting.
Every facet of the game is included therein, with articles covering diverse subjects as cult clubs in South America, the experiences of a Sunday League referee, to how sports betting has revolutionised an otherwise boring Saturday when your team isn’t playing.
All of it is written about in a manner that educates but never under-estimates a reader’s intelligence.
Perhaps FourFourTwo’s best attribute is its player features, never less than in-depth and illuminating, while its season preview issue is much and widely anticipated.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
