When Saturday Comes is a monthly
magazine published in the UK about
football (or
soccer if you prefer). The first issue appeared in early 1986, and was one of the first
fanzines solely devoted to football. Initially produced on a miniscule budget and a print run of 100 issues, the quality of the writing, enthusiasm for the game, and willingness to offer an opinion on the issues that gave
football a bad name (
hooliganism,
racism etc.) made it an essential read for the discerning fan of the time. It helped give fans a voice it their efforts to avoid being labelled as troublemakers at a time when
Thatcher and the
Tory government were attempting to denigrate fans with a half-baked
ID card scheme.
'The half decent football magazine' as it fashioned itself is perhaps best known for its Private Eye-esque covers, which consist of speech bubbles inserted into photos of players or managers involved in recent talking points of the game, with the intent of making you snort out in the newsagent. As football became 'trendy' in the UK after the 1990 World Cup, publishing houses decided to launch new 'glossy' football magazines into the marketplace, and although they may have a wider circulation, When Saturday Comes continues to represent the spirit of the game.