Football normally ranks high in the laddish quartet of babes beer cars and sport that dominate these titles but this

Football normally ranks high in the laddish quartet of babes, beer, cars and sport that dominate these titles, but this month it reigns supreme. Dan Cotton, the business manager of Zoo, says: “Euro 2004 is in the heartland of what we do. It is the predominant dialogue for young men throughout the country.”

In the adolescent male fantasy world inhabited by IPC’s Nuts magazine and Emap’s Zoo, Euro 2004 presents a critical marketing opportunity. Beside a topless, front-page puff for “Britain’s 20 hottest new babes” and a tease for “real girls confess what they really want in bed”, Zoo proclaimed “The tactics Sven must change” and promised to explain “How we can still win Euro 2004.”Nuts was more restrained. ITV’s Kirsty Gallacher, proclaimed on the front page as the “world’s sexiest football fan”, was not topless.

The IPC title had an exclusive interview with the England striker Michael Owen, conducted after the match, but chose not to promote it on the cover It puffed a feature about mad referees instead. Nuts conveyed the impression that much of its coverage had been written before the crucial game. Will Aves, the press buying director of the media agency Zenith Optimedia, says, “Zoo changed its publishing date to capitalise on Euro 2004. It seems to be being a bit more creative than Nuts.”It needs to be.

Emap’s finance director, Gary Hughes, admitted last month that Zoo’s circulation was trailing behind Nuts. Zoo, which launched in January, topped its first year circulation target of 150,000 19 weeks after hitting the shelves but Hughes admitted that Nuts had captured 60 per cent of the market Now, says Mr Cotton, football has helped Zoo to catch up “We have been pleased with the way our sales have gone It is game on. We are neck and neck with Nuts.”David Wilding of the media agency Mindshare says: “In terms of overall sales, Nuts is doing best, but the gap is closing. It was 75,000 but it has narrowed.” Mr Wilding says Zoo has made the most of Euro 2004.

“I was out in Portugal last week and I saw the Zoo girls handing out copies. They claim to be trying to shift the testosterone away from violence to looking at girls, but whether that works or not it was certainly a valid marketing exercise. Young men seemed interested.” Mr Wilding adds, “Nuts got off on the front foot this year but Zoo has been catching up in recent weeks.”Tim Brooks, the managing director of the IPC division that publishes Nuts, dismisses Zoo’s claim to have reached parity as “complete bullshit”. He insists that Nuts’s commitment to football coverage shines forth from every edition of the magazine and insists that “it is no more vital this month than in any other”.