As the years go by, Cherry Red and football become more and more synonymous. There was always a healthy interest in the beautiful game in the office right from the very early days of the late 1970s. Back in the early '80s when we were in Bayswater we all played football every Tuesday night no matter what the weather. We were joined by several of our artists, various journalists, some of the staff from our distributor Pinnacle, as well as many others who had some kind of connection with Cherry Red. When we moved from Bayswater to Fulham, the Tuesday nights disappeared and were replaced by our participation in the CMCS music business 5 a side league. It all became very serious with talks of cup finals and championships which replaced the relatively easy going attitude of the Bayswater days.

Any prospective new staff members were (and still are!) quizzed about their footballing ability and we somehow prided ourselves in our commitment to provide a team that never gave up. For the last 2 years the Cherry Red team has won the league cup and has earned the reputation of a side that is hard to beat. Our involvement with football records started in 1989 when we were, as far as we know, the first record label to release a football compilation record. Called 4-2-4, the album featured 16 different football songs all based around different clubs.

We received some good reviews although sales were fairly minimal. When we had the opportunity to release a Vinnie Jones record three years later we couldn't resist the challenge. His version of 'Wooly Bully' was featured on Radio 1 and helped to further encourage us to move into the world of football records. Soon after we started our 'Football Classics' series where we focused on different clubs and compiled CDs of songs connected with them. This has proved to be a very popular and successful series. We are now up to over 50 releases and we keep finding more and more clubs who are happy for us to build a release around them.

If we haven't released a CD by your club yet and you want to help, then let's hear from you! For four years we were the main sponsor for Kingstonian FC who now play in the Ryman Premier League. We are still very much involved with the club with a sponsorship package which includes selecting player of the month. We were also the sponsor for the Chiltonian league for several years. This league merged with The Hellenic League during the Summer of 1999 and we sponsored this much extended league of nearly 60 club until the 2003/4 season. In 2004/5 we took over the sponsorship of the Middlesex County League which has seven divisions.

On the spectator side, committed support is also the theme of the Cherry Red staff. Adam is an Arsenal season ticket holder and lain is likewise at AFC Wimbledon; Matt is a Wolves man, Toby supports Aston Villa, Ryan Sheffield Wednesday, whilst our export manager Jon and art director Jim support Manchester United. We also sponsor the 'Non-League Newsdesk Annual,' 'The Football Traveller' weekly listing magazine of all non-league fixtures, the 'Cherry Red Books Trophy,1 and the Hellenic League Floodlit Cup and Annual Groundhop.