“I didn’t get round to it.” Last week I revealed that in true fanzine style I hadn’t prepared my World Cup In Fanzines blog extravaganza. So, this week I got organised, resolved to ignore The Pit Pony Express ( https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2026/06/18/the-pit-pony-express-world-cup-special/) and trawled back though more than a couple of fanzines to look at how the World Cup was followed. You might think there wasn’t too much what with fanzines mainly being club specific but the general fanzines around more than made up for this and club fanzines sometimes went a bit overboard with coverage to fill pages, plus there were the national team zines and stuff that I just noticed and have spuriously tied to the World Cup. Here we go here we go here we go etc..
Winners
Lets start with two of England’s World Cup winner. First of all Nobby Stiles turned up in ….wait for it.. Matlock Town’s Keep off The Fence fanzine (Probably the best in Matlock) when he gave a Sportsman’s dinner speech in the dales. It’s probably the only world cup winner’s view of fanzines that we have though I suspect Nobby being an absolute gentleman just repeated what a slightly addled fanzine editor told him a fanzine was and stood for.
USA USA USA
Now we go back to the last time a World Cup was held in the US of A, 1994. No British teams, 3 points for a win, electric carts to transport injured or faking players and a clampdown on the tackle from behind, all good stuff. Everyone remembers it as the Diana (Ross) finals but it’s worth reading this long but excellent summary of the whole tournament for a better view from Sunderland fanzine It’s an Easy One For Norman . There are tired cliches, great observations, some good jokes but generally a great summary and so a great reminder of the excellent quality you could find in many fanzines so worth reproducing for your pleasure here.
Éire
Staying with 1994 (remember, fanzines peaked between 1988 and 1998 so you’re going to get a lot of stuff from that period) Portadown’s Better Dead Than Red Volume 2 issue 4 from 1994 (Northern Ireland’s No.1 fanzine as selected by Radio Ulster) carried this gentle gag about Sir Jack’s selection criteria for the Ireland team travelling to the US.
Norn Iron
There was also a comment about QPR’s Alan McDonald and absolutely nothing else about the World Cup. I can find no trace of this ad but did find this YouTube video of him offering all the England fans out for claiming the 0-0 draw with England at Wembley in 1985 was fixed. The result saw Northern Ireland qualify for Mexico 86.
Staying with Norn Iron WSYEM carried this small piece in 2001 bemoaning the national team’s fall in the FIFA rankings…Horror of horrors they now sit below Wales, a ranking fall they have never really recovered from.
Elsewhere in the fanzine there are memories of happier times and thankfully for us the chance to move away from the 90s. A couple of pieces talk about the famous Espana 82 campaign (great logo) and an 8 year old swearing and learning how to hate referees. Heartwarming.
In total we have traced 9 print fanzines in honour of Northern Ireland and there was also a Norn Iron fanzine called Arconada…Armstrong! inspired by John Motson’s commentary on Gerry Armstrong’s goal against Spain at that World Cup. The print fanzine morphed into Here We Go Again! and then became one of few that morphed into an online blog ( https://arconadaarmstrong.com/welcome-to-arconada-armstrong/ )
1958 and all that
Let’s move to Wales now and as we have seen, the national team was very much in the doldrums in 2001 ranked 105th in the world (far from their lowest ranking). 11 years before that we get a great little piece in the fanzine Two Left Feet. This was a lovely little fanzine covering all things Welsh, league sides and the national team. The cover of the magnificently numbered Issue 4 Wales 3 Belgium 1 gleefully records a stirring October 1990 win over Belgium in Euro 92 qualifiers that year. Goals for Rush, Saunders and Hughes demonstrate what a potent attacking line up they had, they would go on to beat Germany in the group as well but Germany would not lose or draw another game and Wales would.
OK, I know this is supposed to be about World Cups so let’s just get to the the relevant bit…what it was like supporting Wales away in those barren years. The following article appears in this issue and seems hardly believable nowadays with Wales qualifying for World Cups and Euros again. It’s a stark piece which will stir memories for many of car trips and paper maps..if that isn’t enough Two Left Feet decided it was all a waste of time and packed in after Wales failed to qualify for the 1994 world Cup.
Did we mention 1966?
As we know, fanzines came in all shapes and sizes and The Italian Job, an “England World Cup Preview Fanzine” started in 1990 obviously to cover Italia 90 but by issue 3 in had decided that they would carry on as a general England fanzine though the name was proving tricky.
It carried a your usual mix of articles, match reports, rumour, letters, weak jokes, copyright infringement including a semi naked Kevin Keegan and being World Cup focussed bits about Brazil. It was hard to tell the truth from fiction and worrying fantasy sometimes.
This cartoon was of course referring to the expected attitude of the Carabinieri to England fans during the tournament. Coming just five years after Heyshel it is sickening to think of the behaviour of an element of the England fans, thankfully Italian police utilized mass security measures and proactively contained England supporters in Sardinia to prevent widespread violence. As a counter balance to this many England fans did travel just wanting a quiet time with their recreational pills as this supporter describes after a night time campsite raid from Keith Allen’s world cup video library. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1674319603807703
There was however a really good article about who would be next England manager and basically how the press would decide. Prescient in some ways but woefully off the mark in general. PLUS, a Mansfield supporter chooses his England XI for Italia 90. Great Fanzine fare.
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Scotland and World Cups…well where to start. With five consecutive tournaments from 1974 to 1990 there must be much to cover in fanzines…well yes so lets consider just one of these, the scurrilous fanzine Alotta Balls from March of 1990. In issue 18 (60Pee, not for sale to children or casuals) there were various terrific pieces about the national side and World Cups.
How about this advert for “Allymo” condoms that appeared. I particularly like the photo which is impossible to make out even in the original. This is probably a good thing. Mondial il Poxo…I will be calling all World Cups this from now on.
There is a “history” of the 80s piece in which they make it clear they don’t approve of Andy “school teacher who got lucky” Roxburgh as coach. He was considered as a dull and unadventurous coach during his time which is a bit ironic as in 1994 Roxburgh was later appointed as UEFA’s first technical director and set up the framework for the UEFA Convention on the Mutual Recognition of Coaching Qualifications (sounds sexy, I know) which now includes all 53 UEFA member associations. But that’s not all…“Roxburgh also initiated the UEFA Grassroots Charter to stimulate the UEFA member associations to further invest in the basis of the game and to acknowledge the importance of healthy grassroots. As part of the UEFA administration, Roxburgh was a member of the board of directors, chaired the JIRA and Grassroots panels, and was responsible for UEFA’s youth competitions, refereeing department, and the women’s football, futsal, and medical units. In addition, he also led UEFA’s elite conferences, courses, and forums for national coaches, UEFA Champions League coaches, coach educators, youth coaches, women’s football coaches, grassroots leaders, futsal coaches, and team doctors.” Quite a legacy for a lucky school teacher.
I enhanced that last image with AI…never again. There is also a comment about the number of Scotland kit changes in the 80s (9 according to the Football kit archive) and the fact that Scotland lost the final of the 1989 JVC youth World cup on penalties to…Saudi Arabia. The tournament was held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Motherwell, Aberdeen and Dundee. Neither of these sides would go on to do much, great caricature though there was no Martin O’Niell in the squad.. there was a Brian O’Neil and he did indeed miss 2 penalties in the final1 (see https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2026/05/21/the-distorted-presentation-of-a-person-type-or-action-caricatures-in-fanzines/ for more caricatures)
Montage
Finally, with all the hoo hah over ITV’s decision to decamp Keane, Nev’, Pougers, Hayes and various other footy ‘celebs’ to a set overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge for 2026 we can reveal that Stockport fanzine, or rather a fan of Stockport fanzine The Tea Party (and who wasn’t) got there first. In 1995 issue 40 of the fanzine revealed their regular TTP around the world feature number 364 (might be wrong) revealed what was we believe is legendary boss Danny Bergara actually on the bridge itself (might also be wrong) He’s heavily disguised but DOES have Stockport sweat shirt on so we’re calling it.
Final Whistle
Well, that’s over 1,600 words and we’ve hardly touched this sides on this subject, watch out next week when as all fanzines did over time, we fill more blog space with the World Cup.
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