The Half Decent Football Magazine

April 15, 2019 11:33 AM

When Saturday Comes is an independent football magazine focused on giving fans a voice. And on the 30th anniversary of Hillsborough, it's worth going back and reading their original editorial on the disaster.

Since 1986 When Saturday Comes (WSC) has covered topics like pitch invasions, the influence of capitalism on the game, racism, fascism, and class. Their coverage on Hillsborough was always focused on the fans, challenging the official narrative of the South Yorkshire Police, the press, and Thatcher's Tory government that blamed drunken fans. In June 1997, this editorial memorialized the passing of Lord Taylor (of the Taylor Report) and the election of New Labour to remember talk about the Tory attitudes towards fans citing Thatcher's fan ID scheme and Hillsborough. Years on they have had editorials the examine the legacy of Hillsborough on Liverpool's fans, combatting outdated attitudes toward Liverpool fans, and the pursuit of justice. (And then when some measure of justice finally came.)

WSC remains a beloved institution in football fan culture, covered in The Guardian and The Independent.

posted by kendrak (6 comments total)

At some point I had a copy of one of the first issues of WSC (not sure which but likely the first one I ever saw, voracious reader of anything that I was), bought outside Highbury before queueing to go through the north bank turnstiles for a 3pm Saturday kickoff. It probably went the way of old matchday programs and tickets to second replays in the fourth round of the FA Cup, put in a box and misplaced during a move. The zine has an incredible legacy within British football, so much that I'd actually forgotten until now the horror of the ID card scheme.
posted by humuhumu at 1:51 PM on April 15, 2019

Thanks.

I read the original editorial on Hillsborough you linked just now. On a day like today, it's something that I needed to read.

I was 11, and we'd not long had a TV (for self-denial reasons rather than poverty). And I was at a loose end on a Saturday afternoon, which wasn't that usual for me. I'd never really been into football, but I turned on Grandstand and started watching. And I couldn't really understand when it stopped quite what a big thing this was. I certainly didn't feel any of the pain I've felt since when seeing horrific things.

Or when I read about Duckenfield and the failure to reach a verdict on his manslaughter trial only 2 weeks ago.

Football in the 1980s as portrayed by the press colours a lot of my memories of what growing up then was like. So it's good to read this. Thanks once again.
posted by ambrosen at 1:55 PM on April 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

I've been thinking about ways to recognize today, and this morning as I flipped through the most recent (in the US) issue of WSC it made sense.

There's a local magazine shop here that saves a copy for me every month. I used to read Four Four Two as well, but WSC is really the only one I need. It's just so honest, personal and refreshing.
posted by kendrak at 3:09 PM on April 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

WSC is great. I subscribed for a while, then stopped for some reason. I should start again.

Thank you for marking the day, kendrak. I'm a Liverpool fan, born in Liverpool in the 80s, and it's a permanent scar on the psyche of the city in a way that I find impossible to articulate to anyone who didn't grow up with it.
posted by corvine at 2:16 AM on April 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

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posted by lalochezia at 7:51 AM on April 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

For readers outside the region, this is why Scousers never buy The Sun (as if there weren't hundreds of other reasons by now). The Hillsborough tragedy happened when I was a child, half a world away, but to this day I still feel anxiety about being at crowded events with perimeter fencing.

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posted by MarchHare at 2:46 PM on April 16, 2019