Nationwide Football Annual

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.

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 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:-

• 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 2022-23 : Nationwide Football Annual

Two long-serving previous editors were 'Tityrus' (otherwise J A H Catton, editor of the Athletic News 1900–1924)[1] 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 the England footballer of the same name); Malcolm Gunn (1958–1966); Frank Butler[2] (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).[3]

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.[3]

Following the withdrawal of News of the World as sponsors, the Nationwide Building Society emerged to provide new sponsorship in 2008.[4] 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 during the 1980s.[5]