 Front cover on 31 May 2003, featuringRuud van Nistelrooy | |
| Editor | Stephen Fishlock |
|---|---|
| Categories | Football |
| Frequency | Weekly, every Tuesday |
| Paid circulation | 20,000 (July 2018)[1] |
| First issue | 6 September 1979[2] |
| Company | Kelsey Media |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Website | Official site |
Match, stylised asMATCH orMATCH!,[3] is a weekly Britishfootball magazine aimed at theteenage andpre-teenage market. First published in 1979, the magazine had a circulation of 57,108 copies in December 2010.[4] The magazine includes interviews, a skills school, quizzes and a weekly round-up of results, tables and player ratings from the four main English divisions and the Scottish Premier League in MatchFacts. It mostly covers teams and players in the EnglishPremier League, but also has a limited coverage ofLa Liga,Serie A and international football.
Match magazine was launched on 6 September 1979,[2][5] at a cover price of 25p. The original editor was Mel Bagnall.Kevin Keegan was the first cover star ofMatch and supported the magazine with his column, Learn To Play The Keegan Way.[5] The first issue came with an 80-pagesticker album and included columns by Tottenham star Ossie Ardiles, Manchester United's Steve Coppell and Nottingham Forest manager, Brian Clough.[citation needed] Later columnists includedDavid Platt,Mark Bright andRyan Giggs.
In March 1980,Match launched its first Matchman Of The Month contest. The award, based on a player's match rating, was won byOssie Ardiles. He defeatedTrevor Francis to win the title and won £100. Matchman Of The Month now has no financial reward.[citation needed]
On its launch in 1979, the magazine initially failed to catch the dominant circulation of its main weekly football rival,Shoot. In the mid-1990s the magazine was successfully revitalised and relaunched byChris Hunt, an editor with a wealth of experience in teenage music and sport magazines.[1] Under his editorshipMatch was transformed, finally overtakingShoot to become the biggest-selling football title in Britain, with its weekly sales peaking at 242,000 during this period.[6] This not only marked the highest point in the magazine's sales history (a record that still stands), but the high-water mark of the British football magazine market in the 1990s.[7] In the face of such market dominance byMatch, during this period many of its rival titles either closed or, in the case ofShoot, changed frequency to monthly.Shoot finally closed in June 2008.[8]
A number of notable football journalists have started their careers atMatch, including Mark Irwin ofThe Sun, Hugh Sleight ofFourFourTwo,Paul Smith ofThe Sunday Mirror, Ray Ryan formerly withThe News of the World, Adrian Curtis formerly of theMail On Sunday,Evening Standard andThe Press Association; and Rob Shepherd.