Shoot! Magazine — A History
Shoot first hit the shelves as a weekly publication on 16 August 1969 and quickly became the UK's most popular football magazine. Shoot
Launch & Early Years
The inaugural issue came with a stunning colour centrefold featuring England's triumphant 1966 World Cup winners — for football fans accustomed to black-and-white newspaper coverage, this vibrant presentation was groundbreaking. Rather than focusing solely on match reports and league tables, Shoot! offered personality-driven content that humanised football stars, with players becoming accessible personalities with stories worth telling. The Magazine ArchiveThe Magazine Archive
Signature Features
Each edition featured a two-page colour centrefold photo of a team, plus glossy colour photographs of players from top clubs. The magazine also had a "Focus On" feature that, alongside a colour photo of a player, asked him to reveal biographical and personal information — such as his favourite entertainer or least favourite opponent. Wikipedia
The weekly magazine also featured annual free gifts of "Shoot League Ladders" — thin cardboard sheets with printed league tables for all Football League and Scottish League divisions, with colour-coded team tabs that readers could move around as the season progressed. Old league ladders are still regularly sold on eBay. Wikipedia
Star Writers
The magazine was known for its "Star Writer" features. Each season, big-name First Division players — including Alan Ball, Billy Bremner, Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan, Bryan Robson, and Charlie Nicholas — wrote (or had ghost-written for them) columns on their football lives. Later star contributors included Bobby Moore, Jimmy Greaves, Joe Cole, and John Terry. WikipediaShoot
Merger with Goal
Goal failed and was officially incorporated into Shoot on 15 June 1974, and for a while the merged publication was sold as Shoot/Goal. Soccerbilia
Peak & Decline
Shoot's circulation hit a high of 120,000 copies per week in 1996. Competition from Match! (launched 1979) and changing media habits began to erode its dominance. It changed to a monthly magazine in 2001, selling in excess of 33,000 copies a month, before being relaunched as a weekly again in late February 2008. WikipediaWikipedia
There were also two notable gaps in publication: no issues appeared for six weeks from 17 May to 21 June 1980, or for five weeks from 30 June to 28 July 1984, due to industrial action. Wikipedia
Sale & Digital Era
A change in ownership — from IPC Media (later Time Inc. UK) to Pedigree Group Ltd, the UK's market leader in annuals and yearbooks — resulted in Shoot moving into a new era as it became the first printed football title in the UK to enter the digital world. In June 2011, it launched an app version, and Pedigree also continued to produce the Shoot Annual and other branded products. ShootWikipedia
The entire Shoot run comprises 1,717 issues, with 1,696 printed editions from August 1969 to December 2007. It remains a beloved piece of British football culture, with vintage editions highly sought after by collectors. Comic Book Price Guide