Less than two years on from the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, another famous Manchester United institution is set to bow out after more than a quarter of a century. Red Issue, the fanzine that has spanned the club’s most successful years and so often sparked ire among opposing fans, will publish its final edition on Sunday when United host Southampton.
The demise of the magazine, which has been issued monthly since it first appeared in February 1989, has been greeted with sadness by United fans, for whom cries of “Red Issue” have become synonymous with the matchday experience over the years.
Rarely shy of courting controversy, Red Issue will be remembered, beyond Old Trafford at least, for a distinctive brand of caustic satire that occasionally overstepped the mark. In February 2012, when Liverpool’s Luis Suárez returned to action at Manchester United following an eight-match ban for racially abusing the defender Patrice Evra, police confiscated copies of the fanzine, which featured a cut-out Ku Klux Klan-style mask with the words “LFC Suarez is innocent”.
Another controversial front cover showed Fabrice Muamba, the former Bolton midfielder, lying prone on the pitch at White Hart Lane after suffering a cardiac arrest, under the headline “Grief Junkies run riot”.
Such episodes aside, though, the magazine also came to be regarded as a touchstone of the mood among United fans. Notable campaigns included an effort to mobilise supporters against the club’s takeover by the Glazer family. And when the tenure of Ferguson’s successor David Moyes came under scrutiny early last year, a poll by the magazine showed strong support for the Scot.
One United fan, writing on the Manchester Evening News website, summed up the wider mood among many Old Trafford regulars: “Terrible news. I always arrive early for the home games and an important part of the match preparation for me is to sit in the stands and read Red Issue and the other United fanzines while waiting for the match to kick off. It will be missed.”
