When Saturday Comes began in March 1986. It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering all the topics that fans are likely to talk about, whether serious or trivial.

Within two years of its launch, WSC developed from a bi-monthly, photocopied, hand-stapled production into a monthly magazine with national distribution.

WSC also helped to publicise the hundreds of club fanzines that sprang up around this time. It is estimated that such publications were selling a total of more than a million copies each year by 1989.

That same year, the magazine’s profile was heightened considerably by coverage of a trip to Tirana, organised by WSC, for the Albania v England World Cup qualifying match. This helped push sales above the 20,000 mark.

The following year, WSC began to take advertising. Sales continued to rise as a result of improved national distribution. They rose still further off the back of regular media publicity, such as that generated by a trip organised by the magazine to Senegal for the African Nations Cup in early 1992, subsequent Nations Cups in Tunisia and South Africa, and the South American Championships in Ecuador in 1993.

The magazine increased in size to 48 pages and went full colour in early 1995.The following year, WSC began to take advertising.

Throughout its existence, WSC has sought to include contributions from readers as well as a number of football journalists and award-winning authors such as Nick Hornby, Simon Kuper and Harry Pearson.

The magazine has become recognized as a source of informed comment on all aspects of British football, featuring on major current affairs programming and in newspapers in this country and on radio and television around Europe.

In total fourteen When Saturday Comes books have been published, including the first English language histories of football in Spain and Germany and a book of football writing co-produced with Nick Hornby, author of Fever Pitch. In addition WSC has produced and marketed a number of popular T-shirts. In 1996 WSC went online.

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