The ''Nationwide Football Annual'' is a compact British

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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. This publication first appeared in 1887, produced by the ''

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 was already covered by the ''Sporting Chronicl ...

'' as a rival to the ''

Football Annual __NOTOC__ The ''Football Annual'' was a reference work published annually from 1868 to 1908. It reported on the various codes of football played in England, and also provided some coverage of the other home nations, supplemented on occasion by r ...

''. Like the older publication, it initially aimed to provided coverage of all football codes popular in England, including

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

(both

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

after the codes split) in addition to association football. The titles of this publication have been:- * 1887-88 to 1889-90 : ''Athletic News Football Supplement & Club Directory'' * 1890-91 to 1945-46 : ''Athletic News Football Annual'' * 1946-47 to 1955-56 : ''Sunday Chronicle Football Annual'' * 1956-57 to 1960-61 : ''Empire News & Sunday Chronicle Football Annual'' * 1961-62 to 1964-65 : ''News of the World & Empire News Football Annual'' * 1965-66 to 2007-08 : ''News of the World Football Annual'' * 2008-09 to present : ''Nationwide Football Annual'' Two long-serving previous editors were 'Tityrus' (otherwise J A H Catton, editor of the ''

'' 1900–1924) and

Ivan Sharpe Ivan Gordon Sharpe (15 June 1889 – 9 February 1968) was an English amateur association football, footballer. Although an amateur himself, he played for several professional clubs, including Watford F.C., Watford, Derby County F.C., Derby Coun ...

(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 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 the annual has also included very brief obituaries ('The Final Whistle') for selected former players and officials dying within the previous twelve months.Verified by checking copies of the original annuals, 1946–2010 Following the withdrawal of News of the World as sponsors, the

Nationwide Building Society Nationwide Building Society is a British mutual financial institution, the seventh largest cooperative financial institution and the largest building society in the world with over 16 million members. Its headquarters are in Swindon, England. ...

emerged to provide new sponsorship in 2008. This sponsorship lasted for two years, with the title ''Nationwide Football Annual'' being retained after 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 The Association of Football Statisticians (AFS) is an organisation which collates the historical and statistical records for domestic and international Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a ...

during the 1980s.Verified from copies of the facsimiles

Details

Editions produced since 1946:-

References

{{Reflist Association football books Sports reference works

Details

See also

References