Todays #FanzineoftheDay is general fanzine Blow Football issue 1 from August/September 1989, a date that will be important to remember in this week’s Subbuteo blog. Published from Birmingham by some old university pals it quickly became a very well respected zine on the circuit but its star only shone briefly, 4 issues. Let’s have a look at why it was so well respected.

The front and back covers tell the story of Ruud Gullit arriving at Derby County..now the more observant of you will realize that this never happened. The story is a very funny spoof probably based on yet another stupid statement by master of idiocy Robert Maxwell. In 1989 Ruud was part of Saachi’s dominant AC Milan team run by yet another fraudster admittedly but Gary Micklewhite probably never had to worry about his place.

There is no editorial, we get straight into an interesting piece about the implications of the Hillsborough and Bradford disasters, supporter led initiatives and the inability or refusal of the authorities and clubs to recognise this…has anything changed?!

The Shipton Street roof appeal at Bootham Crescent is held up as a perfect example of how things might change. The appeal did succeed with the football trust putting up half of the £150,000 and the improvement named the David Longhurst Stand after a York player who tragically died during a game against Lincoln in September 1990.

Ignoring the print register on that double spread, when I get round to writing my “Has Anything Changed?” blog I’ll compare and contrast stuff like this to the contents of this letter from the Leeds United supporters club who had been asked by the club to pay for a roof over part of Elland road…in 1932!

Back to Blow Football and a couple of tremendous cartoons, a great spot the ball contest and another predicting the rise of the Prawn sandwich brigade at Old Trafford (with some cheeky changes to the ad boards.)

Introducing “Banter” long before it was a thing we get Vernon Platt, Cockney Twat

Balancing out the jollity the zine published a list of all the MPs who have voted for the Football Spectators Bill. Incredibly, 13 Tories against the bill…

There is more but that’s for another day, it’s easy to see why this fanzine was well respected, it is superbly balanced and its contents hold up very well against the cruel mistress of time. It received the following review from Sunderland classic Wise Men Say. We’ll return to this and the absolutely, totally brilliant Blow Football Subbuteo new accessories cartoon in our blog this week.