Back in the 90s when I was managing the periodicals department of the bookstore I worked at, I used to bring in France Football every week. It was quality ... so much better than all the English stuff I would get. Though I would also get Football Europe, which covered the three tournaments in depth, so you'd get all kinds of great stuff on the UEFA Cup and the Cup Winners Cup, which didn't get as much coverage elsewhere. And, of course, I'd bring in When Saturday Comes, which I still get at the Barnes & Noble that I started working at in 2001. Putting that amongst our magazines was one of the first things I did when I started there. Those things were lifelines back before the proliferation of online info made everything footy instantly accessible. To be honest, the quality of France Football magazine was superior to anything I see in English on the whole internet. It was - and presumably still is - of such a high standard. It makes English footy journalism look childish by comparison.
And of course, I also miss the days of listening to crackling BBC radio broadcasts of Spurs games across the Channel.
On the subject of footy mags: I've just purchased the new WSC* magazine from my local B&N. Of course, it isn't new at all. It's the January issue, which will have been on news stands in the UK two months ago. Distribution over here is always slow, and the pandemic has really put a crimp in their operations. For two or three months, they didn't distribute internationally at all. Anyway, I'm now on page six, which is their TV Watch: This Month's Screen Review, in which they look at how footy is being televised in the UK. Some exerpts: On reviewing The Big Match Revisited, in which ITV4 re-broadcasts old games from the 70s (damn, I'd love that ... sad, I know): "Moore's commentary exclamation of 'Golly!' at the sight of an injured leg and reviewing a penalty incident ... 'through the magic of slow motion' offer the type of 1970s details that leave middle-aged viewers in such a state of peaceful stupefaction they could be led away by the finger to die." And in the studio, as the present-day commentators begin to analyze the old highlights: "Steven Naismith and Neil McCann's professional stillness at this point, despite knowing the outcome, contained the pained concentration of someone having a bullet removed by a member of their heist team in a cellar bedroom." In response to iPlayer's FA Cup review containing the phrase, 'Could there be a cupset?': "It is likely that long-term exposure to Brexit talk has persuaded the BBC that its public is susceptible to ugly portmanteau words created by copywriters bouncing back from their redundancy from Loaded, but this is not the case. The word 'cupset' has, like eating moles, been perfectly possible for centuries, but has not occurred before for a good reason. Let us please remain vigilant about these things." I've only introduced this here as the subject of footy mags had just come up. But the point is this: I do love WSC. It's much more about the culture of football (primarily in the UK, but beyond as well) than just photos and on-the-pitch commentary, a la Four-Four-Two ... though it does contain a match review every month, usually from the lower divisions (this month: Plymouth Argyle at Fleetwood Town). Maybe it's just because I'm of an age and disposition that things like 70s re-broadcasts, snarky condemnations of words like 'cupset', and 3rd-tier match reviews tick certain boxes for me, but crikey this magazine tends to resonate. If you've not read it before, you really should pick up a copy sometime. It's not for everyone (and certainly not over here), but it's worth a look. *When Saturday Comes