Foul Book of Football

Err, Bingo?

That's it, Bingo......................"Bingo, you're nicked!"

I'm bumping up this ancient thread because Wildebeeste has recently been browsing through my two Foul! compilations from the 1970s. For those who aren't aware Foul! was an "alternative" football magazine, cheaply produced, that was - generally speaking - more Private Eye than When Saturday Comes. For a time it developed something of a cult following.

I guess this was largely due to the fact there was nothing else like it as it preceded the fanzine era by a good ten years. That made it stand out regardless of its merits or otherwise. Indeed, if truth be told, it was something of a curate’s egg: good in places; ropey in others. In that way I’m not sure if it’s stood the test of time. That, to my mind, is also true of Monty Python – and various other forms of “humour” – which now appear tired and dated. Or does it? That’s up to you I suppose. You may say that, because you loved something years ago, you’ll always love it. Or you may admit that you and the world have moved on in the intervening years.

In that way Foul!, just like Soccer Star which still had a whiff of the 1950s in 1969, was a product of its time. It may now seem, by our more enlightened standards, rather racist and sexist in places. If that’s the case, I think that’s an encouraging sign of how we’ve moved on that type of thing. But, come what may, the thought of Rupert meeting a couple of skinheads in the park still makes me laugh.

As for the present, I’ve reached the stage where I hardly look at football magazines. I’ve subscribed to When Saturday Comes since its inception and, if I was coming to it fresh, I’m sure I’d think it was excellent. But maybe I’m jaded and have now heard the same things said about football rather too many times. And, besides, I believe there’s been a transition where we’ve become writers rather than readers. We should never neglect our reading - and Wildebeeste now has the Chris Hargreaves book to review - but here’s to continued good writing on this forum and elsewhere.