 | About Soccer Review (Football League Review) 1965
See below for the history of this magazine
About Soccer Review (Football League Review)
The Official Journal of the Football League
Weekly.
A very collectable item.A lot of people have a few of these but very few people have all 366 issues.
"They printed and produced 100 million copies in just shy of a decade,creating a canon of work that involved 7,000 pages,two million words and 300 colour team photographs." Paraffin Bob and the League Review by Hyder Jawad.
If you went to football matches from the late sixties and through to the mid-seventies you will remember the insert from the Football League that came inside your clubs match day programme. It started privately in August 1965 and only appeared in some clubs programmes originally called the Soccer Review. It was printed by Sport and Screen Productions in Leicester and was edited by Harry Brown.
Its' original purpose was to give clubs an interesting insert to help 'fill out' their own match programmes while obviously promoting the Football League's corporate messages of the time.
I only discovered by reading the magazine's obituary in the last issue that the "Soccer Review" was a private venture that was taken over by the League after one season and renamed "The Football League Review"
The Soccer Review/Football League Review ran for 8 and a half consecutive years between August 1965 and December 28th 1974.By the time of its demise it had had another rebranding becoming simply "League Football". The last ever issue was numbered 920 and featured an interesting editorial regarding the events that had led to the closure. The reason was economics. The League subsidized the magazine and had increased the price in September due to increases in printing costs but not enough clubs had agreed to continue supporting the venture.
(Thanks to Peter Hindhaugh who helped me get to the bottom of the various riddles surrounding this publication.)
SOCCER REVIEW
1965-66 (Vol. 1) Aug 21-27 (No. 1), Aug 28-Sep 3 (No 2), Sep 4-Sep 10 (No 3), Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, (34) Editor Harry Brown
FOOTBALL LEAGUE REVIEW
1966-67(Volume One) Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, (38) Editor Harry Brown
1967-68(Volume Two) Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, (39) Editor Harry Brown
1968-69(Volume Three)
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, (39) Editor Harry Brown
1969-70
Nos. 40A, 40B, 40C, 40D, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, (39) Editor Harry Brown
1970-71
50A, 50B, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, (40) Editor Harry Brown ( to edition 525) Bob Baldwin from 536 onwards
1971-72
60A, 60B, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605, 606, 607, 608, 609, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620, 621, 622, 623, 624, 625, 626, 627, 628, 629, 630, 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, 636, 637, 638, (40) Editor Bob Baldwin
LEAGUE FOOTBALL
1972-73
70A, 70B, 701, 702, 703, 704, 705, 706, 707, 708, 709, 710, 711, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 717, 718, 719, 720, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736, 737, 738, (40) Editor Bob Baldwin
1973-74
80A, 80B, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 808, 809, 810, 811, 812, 813, 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819, 820, 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829, 830, 831, 832, 833, 834, 835, (37) Editor Bob Baldwin
1974-75
901, 902, 903, 904, 905, 906, 907, 908, 909, 910, 911, 912, 913, 914, 915, 916, 917, 918, 919, 920, (20) Editor Bob Baldwin
366 issues in total.
When the numbering stops on the front cover you have to look for tiny black number printed on the back cover at the bottom. It took me ages to work this out!!!!
By 1975, football programmes were beginning to evolve towards the magazine-type issues we have today, so the need for such a supplement reduced as clubs developed their own styles and were reluctant to pay the League for their content..
I strongly recommend people reading the in depth history of this magazine written by Hyder Jawad as one of the lengthy articles in issue of the new magazine called Soccerama that was launched in the autumn of 2015. About Soccer Review (Football League Review)magazines. |
