We were going to cover all mags, but we ended up blabbing on for an hour about just Shoot! & Match so we'll cover the rest another time.
We also had a phenomenal response from you all and I think we managed to read all your messages out.
Oh and the theme tune? Well it's goodbye from him...
Links mentioned in the podcast:
- Luke Constable from Ruud Gullit Sitting on a Shed wrote an article for The Football Attic about a 1997 issue of Match magazine back in September 2012
- Scots Footy Cards wrote about their Subbuteo alternative using pictures cut out of Shoot in this article from December 2013
- Rich J' wrote this article about Steve Earl Football Programmes for The Football Attic in December 2011
Download:
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I don't think I ever bought an issue of Shoot or Match. I always thought they seemed like they were for kids (even though I was a kid myself). So needless to say your conversation about "league ladders" went straight over my head!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was twelve I took a train up to Scotland for a wedding. The journey was about 12 hours so to pass the time I bought a magazine at the station called World Soccer. Lee Sharpe was on the cover (Man Utd had just won the Cup Winners' Cup). I bought the following month's issue (with Gianluca Vialli on the cover), and I think I started subscribing the month after that.
As you mentioned in the podcast, it was the only place for proper reports from practically every league in the world, without any bias towards the big European teams. What other magazine could offer a club focus on Colo Colo or Kispest Honved? I remember the back page was often a team photo, but usually of an unfashionable or exotic side like Bari or Penarol. In an age before internet or even satellite TV it was absolutely essential as it afforded me an invaluable glimpse into football taking place elsewhere, and as a result my interest and knowledge of the game has always been very global.
Having said that the magazine was utterly devoid of humour, and sometimes took itself very seriously indeed. I finally let my subscription expire around 2002.
I don't know if this counts, but the only other sports publication I've ever bought with regularity is La Gazzetta dello Sport. The pink soccer daily was something of a security blanket for me when I was living in Italy (I was rarely seen without it), and in four years I only missed about three issues.
Many thanks for your memories about World Soccer, James!
ReplyDeleteYes, it was more serious but it did open up a whole new world of football that you wouldn't have ordinarily known about. Between 1985 and 1994, I regularly bought it and loved the facts and imagery that it provided in spades.
Very impressed that you often bough La Gazzetta dello Sport! It reminds me of a time a few years ago when I used to buy France Football every week on my way to work in North London. I was working on a French football podcast at the time and was trying to learn as much as possible about the French game. Shame I didn't understand most of the writing it contained!