User:DrKop/sandbox

The Kop Magazine
The Kop Magazine is an independently produced football magazine about Liverpool Football Club. It is produced by the Liverpool-based Sport Media department at the Post & Echo Building and is owned byTrinity Mirror. The Kop is named after the Spion Kop stand at Anfield and has been published on a monthly basis since March 1995. It was originally produced by members of the sports desk at the Liverpool Echo before becoming part of Trinity Mirror's Sport Media publishing unit in 2002. The magazine claimed in its' 200th edition to be the longest-running unofficial monthly publication about any English football club currently in circulation.

format and content
The Kop Magazine consists of 28 pages each month, although this number has been increased for special occasions such as the 100th and 200th editions in August 2003 and November 2011. It is available in both magazine format and on iPad. All the articles in the magazine relate to the goings-on at Liverpool FC, with analytical, humourous and opinion-based features on everything from the players and manager to the club's owners and supporters. Every month the publication features a cartoon drawn by Peter King plus columns from Liverpool FC legend John Aldridge, Kop editor/writer Chris McLoughlin and Fox Soccer Channel presenter Keith Costigan. Former columnists include ex-Liverpool captain Phil Thompson, former Reds midfielder Jan Molby and Tony Barrett (The Times). It also has a football gossip section written by The Kop Mole and an interactive letters page on which the cartoon character Dr Kop answers every letter and email that is printed.

Gary Neville's swimming pool
In May 2008, The Kop Magazine was in the news after a Liverpool-supporting builder who was working at the house of Manchester United defender Gary Neville allegedly buried a copy of The Kop under his swimming pool. The builder was taking part in the Kop Summer Challenge - a feature that has been running since 2003 in which readers take a picture of themselves with The Kop all over the world. In 2005, after Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League in Istanbul, readers were asked to also hold five fingers up next to The Kop to celebrate Liverpool's 5th European Cup and the feature was re-branded The Kop Summer Challenge 5. Also in 2005, The Kop bought a single share in Liverpool's main rivals Manchester United, giving the magazine access to company documents and the AGM. They were subsequently forced to sell the share as a result of a compulsory purchase order when Malcolm Glazer obtained 98% of the club's shares, entitling him to purchase the other 2%.

Jamie Carragher's wedding photos
Speaking in an interview with The Times in 2005 Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher revealed that he had agreed to sell the rights to his wedding photographs to The Kop Magazine for £1. The photographs were never published and in December 2011 it was written in a magazine editorial that this was 'out of respect for Carra's privacy'.

famous front cover
In December 2005, ahead of Liverpool's participation in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship, The Kop's front cover featured the heads of Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez and captain Steven Gerrard super-imposed on to the bodies of Status Quo (band) members Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi alongside the headline Rockin' All Over The World - a tune that had gained cult-status amongst Liverpool supporters that year. Stats Quo were so impressed with the cover that they asked for permission to reproduce it in their 40th anniversary picture book and it was also turned into a canvas that was signed by the Liverpool squad and auctioned off for the The Prince's Trust, raising £1,550.