��������pk10

I love working on a football mag because football is my passion.

And it’s about as close to owning a football club as you can get, without being a millionaire.

As I see it, my role is that of chairman, responsible for the profitability, the magazine editor is like the manager and the ad sales and editorial teams are the players – it works really well.

To be running a football mag when we are about to enter a major tournament – Euro 2004 for those of you who are blinkered to the beautiful game – is as exciting as it gets, the anticipation of England winning and the worry of copy sales if Sven gets it wrong again (remember Brazil?). That is what working on a football mag is like – you can do all the planning you like, but one bad refereeing decision or one bad miss and you are out. So we will all be sat in the dug-out praying for Henry to have a stinker, Beckham to be at the top of his game and Pires to score an embarrassing own goal. Oh, and then England to go on and win the cup! I love working on a football magazine.

When you are doing your job, talking to advertisers is like talking to your mates down the pub. Everyone has an opinion on England’s best team and say that Rangers (my team) and Celtic play in a Mickey Mouse league! If you can talk football it really does help when striking deals, and Euro 2004 has certainly helped, and we have stuck up some fantastic sponsorship deals. It is excellent when you can develop relationships with sponsors through a major tournament and then develop them into more lasting partnerships, to the benefit of all.

Being a Scotsman working here in England, I have become used to the tartan army not qualifying, so I have joined the long list of ex-Scottish players now earning a living down south who, when now referring to England, it is WE and US.

The public’s obsession with football cannot be explained – you either love it or hate it, there is no in-between. But the kind of excitement generated by a big tournament is great news for all of us in the media – newspapers, magazines and TV alike.

The only problem comes when trying to sell to someone who doesn’t understand the importance of football. How can you explain to someone what makes people get married on there favourite ground at half-time or getting their ashes scattered over their favourite team’s playing surface? Football is very much like life; it gives you the good days and the bad days, highs and lows.

You travel to different parts of the country and visit different lands, you shout for your team and boo the opposition!! When your team or your country is doing well, everyone is lifted.

You know you’re not going to win the league or Champion’s League, but, at the start of the season, you are full of optimism and hope.

I love working for a football magazine because I love talking football, I love the conversations I have with Simon my editor on where Manchester United went wrong, and whether or not Fergie has lost it, and will Beckham go to Chelsea? I love talking to advertisers about what certain parts of Match they can sponsor, and helping each other out with tickets for big games (yes, this job has got definite perks). I love it that I can watch footy all day at home then go to the pub with my mates for the big game at night and say to my wife: “Sorry, it’s work, it just has to be done.”

I love working for a football magazine because I have the best job in the world, working with the best team in the world.

It would be great if Sven could say that!! Alan Morrison is publisher of Match magazine

FANCY A RANT?

If you are so in love with something that you would like to pen an article for Media Week, or if you despise something so much that you simply must get your vitriol in print, then e-mail richarda@mediaweek.co.uk or write to us at Why I Love/Hate..., Media Week, Quantum Business Media, 19 Scarbrook Road, Croydon, CR9 1LX; or fax us on 0208 5654394.