May 18 1960 is a critical date in the history of football. It was the night that Real Madrid beat
Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 to win a record fifth successive European Cup. A crowd of 127,000 was at
Hampden Park in Glasgow to witness Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francisco Gento and the rest
beat an Eintracht side that had thrashed Rangers 12-4 on aggregate in the semi-final. Many more
were watching at home on television, witnessing a European final for the first time.
The thrilling match opened British eyes to the wider European game and prompted, among other
things, the launch of World Soccer magazine later that year.
In the first edition, a host of wellwishers offering support to the new magazine included UEFA
president Ebbe Schwartz, English FA Secretary Stanley Rous, England manager Walter Winterbottom,
Matt Busby, Stan Cullis and Stanley Matthews.
Busby said: “I feel that recent years have proved that this great game of ours is now a world game
and the magazine will keep us in touch with the happenings in other countries.”
In a column (see pages 6/7) Graham Payne, the Editor of weekly sister title Soccer Star, declared:
“The real future of association football lies on the broad international front and not within our own
narrow horizons, as some would still have us believe.”
A year later, Payne and fellow Associate Editor Jack Rollin wrote an editorial celebrating the
magazine’s first anniversary. “In our first edition, we made it known that...although produced in
London, the world’s greatest city and a stronghold of soccer, World Soccer would endeavour to
present a well-balanced editorial content that would not be biased
or give preferential treatment to any one country.
“Judging by the many letters of congratulations we have
received since October, 1960, it would seem that we have
succeeded somewhat in this daring ambition.”
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, the magazine featured
the leading teams of the time – such as the Benfica of coach Bela
Guttmann (pages 8/9/10/11) – and continued to reflect on English
football’s place in the wider world; the ubiquitous Eric Batty
commented on the England v World Xl match at Wembley to mark
the centenary of the FA’s foundation (12/13).
Many themes have recurred during six decades of the magazine.
Brian Glanville, in one of his earliest columns, in February 1964,
wrote about the possibility of a European league (pages 14/15).
World Soccer correspondents have been there to record the details of all the big matches: Celtic
becoming the first British club to win the European Cup in 1967 (pages 22/23) and Manchester
United’s triumph at Wembley a year later in the same competition (24/25), as well as Brazil’s famous
1970 World Cup victory (28/29).
Off the pitch, the magazine has recorded the sea changes in world football, such as the election of
Joao Havelange in 1974 (pages 34/35), and has never been afraid to tackle the darker side of the
game; the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies were analysed in forensic detail (48/49/50/51 and
56/57 respectively).
The World Soccer awards, the oldest of their kind, were launched in 1982 (pages 44/45/46/47) and
still provide an opportunity to celebrate the best in the game: from Maradona (54/55) to Maldini
(74/75), and from Ronaldo (64/65) to Cristiano Ronaldo (90/91).
New developments in the game have been chronicled in detail, from Silvio Berlusconi’s prediction
of club football’s supremacy (pages 62/63) to Glanville’s forewarning of the Bosman revolution (67)
and the break-up of the great 1995 Ajax side in its wake (70/71).
Glanville has been a constant in the pages of World Soccer but the digital age brought new
challenges – and new features. Talent spotting became an important element of the editorial
make-up – Lionel Messi was first featured in May 2005 (page 81) – while the women’s football
column (92/93) became a regular feature from 2016.
Over six decades the magazine’s principles have remained largely intact. It is still UK-based but
not UK-biased, it has not resorted to sponsor-approved interviews with premiership “superstars”,
and it still strives to reach parts of the world that other publications fear to touch.
Gavin Hamilton, London, May 2020
FROM
THE
EDITOR
Over six
decades the
magazine’s
principles
have
remained
largely intact