The Nationwide Football Annual is a compact British football reference book which is produced at the start of each football season. It contains information from the previous football season, and also contains updated records going back to the beginnings of organised football in the 1800s.
6-595: This publication first appeared in 1887, produced by the Athletic News as a rival to the Football Annual . Like the older publication, it initially aimed to provided coverage of all football codes popular in England, including rugby football (both rugby union and rugby league after the codes split) in addition to association football. The final edition to date was published in the summer of 2022 for
12-483: The 2022-23 season, as no deal could be agreed between the authors and prospective publishers for the 2023-24 edition. The titles of this publication have been:- Two long-serving previous editors were 'Tityrus' (otherwise J A H Catton, editor of the Athletic News 1900–1924) and Ivan Sharpe (c. 1928–1956). Other editors or joint-editors appearing on the front covers or title pages include David Jack (1956–1958 – he also made later contributions, not to be confused with
18-450: The England footballer of the same name); Malcolm Gunn (1958–1966); Frank Butler (1961–1982); Patrick Collins (1967–1977); Harold Mayes (1978); Charles Sampson (1983–1984); Albert Sewell (1983–1997); Bill Bateson (1985–1994) and Eric Brown (1998–1999). The book has incorporated a number of illustrations for many years, and since 1948 these have regularly included team photos of a few of the previous season's most successful sides. Since 1985
24-532: The annual has also included very brief obituaries ('The Final Whistle') for selected former players and officials dying within the previous twelve months. Following the withdrawal of News of the World as sponsors, the Nationwide Building Society emerged to provide new sponsorship in 2008. This sponsorship lasted for two years, with the title Nationwide Football Annual being retained after
30-621: The end of the sponsorship. Facsimile copies of the Athletic News Football Annuals for 1887-88 to 1900-01 and 1915-16 to 1918-19, were produced by the Association of Football Statisticians during the 1980s. Editions produced since 1946:- Athletic News The Athletic News and Cyclists' Journal was a Manchester-based newspaper founded by Edward Hulton in 1875. It was published weekly , covering weekend sports fixtures other than horse racing, which
36-793: Was already covered by the Sporting Chronicle founded by Hulton in 1871. It was an advocate of professional football and many of its staff were actively involved in the sport. In 1931 it merged with the Sporting Chronicle 's Monday edition. The original name was preserved until the 1940s in the titles of the Athletic News Football Annual first issued in 1887 and the Athletic News Cricket Annual first issued in 1888; both these annuals were eventually taken over by
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