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The Blizzard
The Blizzard is dedicated to sharing football stories you won't find anywhere else.
Hear fascinating tales from behind the matches which changed the course of footballing history with Jonathan Wilson, Marcus Speller and a special guest every week on 'Greatest Games'. Exclusively available on The Blizzard's podcast feed.
On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller head back to June 1992 for the Copa Libertadores Final second leg between Sao Paulo and Newell's Old Boys - joining them to discuss it is Joshua Law.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Joshua Law is the features editor for Planet Football.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Dave Farrar to review the Euro 2000 play-off first leg between Slovenia and Ukraine in 1999.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Dave Farrar is a football commentator and writer, who covered the finals of the European Championships in 2000 and 2004.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller head back to 1981 with Steve Tongue to review the FA Cup Final Replay between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Steve Tongue is an author and former sports journalist who has covered nine World Cups - his latest publication is a book on the history of football in the West Midlands called West Midlands: Turf Wars.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Nick Barnes to discuss Sunderland's surprise victory over Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Nick Barnes is a commentator for Sunderland at BBC Radio Newcastle.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Christoph Biermann joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the all-German Champions League final of 2012/13 between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Christoph Biermann is a reporter for 11Freunde in Berlin and author of Football Hackers: The Science and Art of a Data Revolution.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Ben Bailey Smith joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember the infamous Crystanbul night at Selhurst Park.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Ben Bailey-Smith is a comedian, actor, screenwriter, voiceover artist and producer.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Rob Bagchi to discuss the 1970 European Cup semi-final between Celtic and Leeds United.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Rob Bagchi is the co-author of The Unforgiven, True Grit, Determined, Hooked and author of The Biography of Leeds United.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Michael Taylor to discuss Northern Ireland's win over Spain at the 1982 World Cup.
A win or a 2-2 draw is what Northern Ireland needed if they were to progress through to the second round of the tournament. However, they had never beaten Spain in their history and the tournament hosts has qualification aspirations of their own.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Michael Taylor is a historian and author whose book The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery was shortlisted for the 2021 Orwell prize for political writing.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Aet Süvari to discuss Estonia's win over Russia in 2002.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Aet Süvari is a broadcaster for ERR, Estonia Public Broadcasting.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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David Owen joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the immediate ramifications that the 1925 offside rule change had on English football.
Villa were keen to impress their fans after a disappointing 1924-25 campaign, and the squad selection had its doubters.
But this thumping of Burnley would quell those fears and prove football administrators right who had hoped to bring some much-needed entertainment back to the game following a cagey footballing era post-WW1.
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
David Owen is a freelance sports journalist, an author and former sports editor of the Financial Times.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On today's Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Mike Keegan to remember a classic League Cup upset.
Joe Royle and Oldham Athletic's 'pinch-me season' saw the side reach the FA Cup Semi-Finals for only the 2nd time in their history, and the Final of the League Cup – the club's first-ever appearance at Wembley. When Arsenal, the First Division champions, rocked up to Boundary Park they hadn't a clue what was about to hit them.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Mike Keeganis the author of This Is How It Feels – An English Football Miracle, Sports News Correspondent and Sports Agenda Editor for MailSport.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Nick Miller joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the second leg of the 1978-79 European Cup semi-final between Koln and Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Nick Milleris a football writer for The Athletic and editor of the Totally Football Yearbook.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Matthew Lorenzo joins Jonathan and Marcus to discuss the 1982 World Cup final.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Matthew Lorenzo is a TV presenter and producer for Bo66y.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Jack Pitt-Brooke joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the final home game to be played at the old White Hart Lane.
As another high-flying season for Pochettino's Spurs began to wrap up, a performance that epitomised the Argentine manager's reign over the club spoiled the fans on an emotional day in North London. Jack, Jonathan and Marcus ponder over just how Pochettino could make Spurs purr, what it is that makes Harry Kane so good, how the opposition's goalscorer that day appears in Jonathan's dreams and much more.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Jack Pitt-Brookecovers Tottenham Hotspur and England for The Athletic.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
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This week we're celebrating 100 episodes of our weekly podcast, Greatest Games! To celebrate, we've got back the guest from our very first episode, Ian Hawkey.
This time, Ian's picked the 2013 Copa del Rey final at the Bernabeu which provided Diego Simeone with silverware to cap off his first full season as manager of Atletico Madrid.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Ian Hawkey is a writer for The Sunday Times, previously as their European football correspondent based in Spain for 12 years. Ian is the author of several books including The Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of African Football and Di Stefano, the Real Madrid legend.
Listen to every episode of Greatest Games: theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts/greatest-games
Subscribe to our quarterly magazine: theblizzard.co.uk
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This week on Greatest Games, John Brewin joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember the 1990 FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and Manchester United.
The Eagles and the Red Devils had only managed to finish 15th and 13th respectively in the First Division, but after being on the right side of a pair of memorable semi-finals, both sides would provide the Wembley crowd with an FA Cup final classic.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
John Brewin is a football writer and contributor for the Guardian.
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On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Simon Kuper joins Jonathan and Marcus to look back on the 2011 Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United.
Over the decade preceding this final, Barcelona's fabled academy La Masia was quietly assembling the greatest generation of footballing talent to be produced at one time by a single club. It was in this final when that crop of talent – which included Xavi, Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique along with the addition of extraordinary imports Dani Alves, Eric Abidal and David Villa – best applied their abilities to Barcelona's Cruyffian tactics and decimated the Premier League champions on European football's grandest stage.
Recorded on Tuesday 3 August, just ahead of the news regarding Lionel Messi's departure from Barcelona.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Simon Kuper is a columnist for the Financial Times and author of many books, including Soccernomics, Ajax: The Dutch, The War and most recently Barca: The Inside Story of the World's Greatest Football Club released this week.
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Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller discuss Senegal's famous win over France at the 2002 World Cup on this week's episode of Greatest Games alongside James Copnall.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
James Copnallis the presenter of Newsday on the BBC World Service and author of A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts, a book about the two Sudans.
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On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Matthew Watson-Broughton to discuss the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final second-leg between Újpesti Dózsa and Newcastle United.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Matthew Watson-Broughtonis the author of The Amazing Journey: How Newcastle Conquered Europe, he's also worked for Uefa, the LOCOG, FINA and is currently the English-speaking editor for the Hungarian Football Federation.
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On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Colin Udoh has chosen to discuss Nigeria's 1996 Olympic Games semi-final win over Brazil with Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller. For Brazil, Olympic gold continued to elude them, hence the strength of the squad they boasted for this tournament – Dida, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo and Juninho all started this match, Rivaldo would come off the bench. It wouldn't be until they hosted the Olympics in 2016 when they finally won their first Men's final.
Meanwhile, many of Nigeria's Dream Team were already established names after their enthralling appearance at the USA '94 World Cup, having been knocked out by two extremely late goals from Italy's Roberto Baggio.
However, no one would have anticipated what they'd achieve at the 1996 Olympics, especially with the calibre of opposition – and the players chosen for those sides – in front of them.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Colin Udohis a journalist from Nigeria, a contributor to ESPN, The Blizzard an many more outlets and was previously the press officer to the Nigeria national team.
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Dion Fanning joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller for this week’s episode of Greatest Games to remember a First Division meeting between the two Merseyside rivals. Last season's champions v the would-be champions of the 1987-88 season.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Dion Fanning is a journalist and broadcaster previously as the Sunday Independent covering the Premier League and the World Cup, currently of the Currency.
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Tim Vickery joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller for this week’s episode of Greatest Games to relive the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Tim Vickery is a long-time contributor to BBC Sport, ESPN, World Soccer and can be seen on-screen regularly in his country of residence, Brazil.
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On this week’s Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Brian Oliver to discuss the Euro 2000 semi-final between Italy and the Netherlands.
Both nations had gotten the group stages and a quarter-final with little to worry about up to this fixture. The co-host, Netherlands, were spurred on by a 34th minute Gianluca Zambrotta red card and seemed destined to advance to the final of their own tournament.
However, a triumphant display of Catenaccio values deployed by Dino Zoff’s Nezzuri ensured Italy were headed for a meeting with the world champions in Rotterdam.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Brian Oliver is a sports journalist having covered many international tournaments, former sports editor of the Observer and author of The Commonwealth Games: Extraordinary Stories Behind The Medals.
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Michael Yokhin is our guest on this week's Greatest Games, joining Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the 2008 European Championship quarter-final between Russia and the Netherlands.
The Netherlands blitzed through their group with convincing wins over Italy, France and Romania – leading many to think that perhaps Marco van Basten had returned total football to the Dutch national side. However, Russia, galvanised by the Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, also looked promising after group stage wins against holders Greece and Sweden. The match signalled the start of two polarising eras for the two national sides.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Michael Yokhin is a freelance football writer for the BBC, the Guardian, FourFourTwo, ESPN, among others and regular contributor to The Blizzard.
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On this week’s Greatest Games, Jonathan and Marcus are joined by Eero Laurila to discuss what it’s like to spy on Marcelo Bielsa and the state of football in Finland via the 2012 Europa League qualifier between HJK Helsinki and Athletic. At the time Athletic were led by the influential Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, whilst their hosts had former Finland national team manager Antti Muurinen in charge. The Finnish side were to lose 9-3 on aggregate but the occasion proves to be a perfect platform to discuss advances made in Finland over the past 20 years up to qualification for the current European Championship. About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Eero Laurila is a former football correspondent covering the Premier and Football League, now back in his native country, Finland, coaching third-tier side Espoon Palloseura and runs the football website brittifutis.com.
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On Greatest Games this week, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by David Diaz Bejarano to discuss the 1987 Copa Libertadores final decider between Penarol and America de Cali. America de Cali were heading into the tie having already lost the 1985 and 1986 Libertadores final and hoped to break a long-standing curse on the Colombian club. Penarol, managed by Oscar Tabarez, were already giants of South American football and aiming for their fifth Libertadores triumph. About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
David Diaz Bejarano is a political scientist and founder of Pinceladas de Fútbol, a Colombian-based journalistic project which envisions football as a social and cultural phenomenon.
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On this week’s Greatest Games we remember a Skol Cup Dundee Derby at Dens Park in 1987 with Alan Patullo. Following football in Dundee is unlike no other city such is the close proximity between the two sides, whose stadiums reside just a matter of yards away from each other. Alan remembers the history of this rivalry throughout the early years of his life and the atmosphere at this League Cup fixture that’s lost in time as the game wasn’t broadcast. About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Alan Patullo is a football writer for the Scotsman and a Dundee fan.
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On this week’s Greatest Games, Nick Ames joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to share his story from the abandoned Serbia v Albania 2016 European Championship qualifier.
Eyebrows were raised when the draw placed these two nations in Group I in February 2014. Political disagreements regarding Kosovo, which culminated during the Kosovo War, meant that tensions were bound to be high when the sides came to meet.
In Belgrade, when a drone flew into the Partizan Stadium carrying a nationalist flag depicting a map of ‘Greater Albania’, the Serbian crowd responded in fury – forcing the match to be abandoned by referee Martin Atkinson.
If you can ever spare the time to leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from, it could really help. Thanks for your support!
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Nick Ames is a football reporter for the Guardian.
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Vithushan Ehantharajah re-joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller this week to discuss an eight-goal thriller at White Hart Lane – Spurs 3 Manchester United 5.
Goals from Richards, Ferdinand and Ziege raced Spurs into a three-goal lead at half-time against the champions but an infamous Alex Ferguson three-word half-time speech was all that was needed to inspire an exhilarating second-half performance this Man United side – a vintage comeback.
If you can ever spare the time to leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from, it could really help. Thanks for your support!
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Vithushan Ehantharajahis a sportswriter for the Independent and IndySport as well as being a part of The Football Ramble.
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Steve Crossman joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller on this week’s Greatest Games to discuss the Euro 2016 Group F opener between eventual champions, Portugal, and the tournament’s surprise package, Iceland.
The Nordic nation had never featured at a major tournament finals before but were unfazed by going toe-to-toe with the 2004 finalists, captained by the mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo. The result, and the remainder of the tournament, would catapult Iceland out of footballing obscurity and capture the hearts of football fans across Europe.
If you can ever spare the time to leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from, it could really help. Thanks for your support!
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Steve Crossmanis a Five Live presenter and producer/presenter of The Hurricane Tapes podcast.
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This week on Greatest Games, Michael Walker joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember Northern Ireland’s return to Windsor Park after three and a half years of international football exile.
The Northern Ireland national team had been playing their “home” games up and down England since their last Windsor Park international in October 1971 against the Soviet Union. This game against Yugoslavia brought Northern Ireland out of football isolation.
If you can ever spare the time to leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from, it could really help. Thanks for your support!
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Michael Walkeris a football reporter for The Athletic, the Irish Times and the I and an author of Up There: North East Football Boom and Bust and also Green Shoots: Irish Football Histories.
Listen to every Greatest Games podcast ever, here.
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On this week’s Greatest Games Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the 1954 exhibition match between English champions Wolverhampton Wanderers and Hungarian champions Budapest Honvéd.
Under the Molineux floodlights and broadcast on the BBC, excitement swept across Wolverhampton and the entire nation for this one.
Honvéd starred many of the Mighty Magyars who finished as runners-up in the 1954 World Cup and had sent shockwaves through English football after becoming the first team from outside the British Isles to defeat England at Wembley.
After the win, the English press coined Wolves the ‘champions of the world’, spurring a desire for more continental club football and the formation of regular contests under the guise of the European Cup.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Dominic Sandbrook is a historian, author, columnist and co-presenter of The Rest Is History podcast. Dominic’s most recent book Who Dares Wins, about Britain in the 1980s, is available from all the expected retailers now.
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We’re off to a cup final, everyone! Faye Carruthers joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the 1988 Littlewoods Challenge Cup Final between Luton Town and Arsenal.
Defending champions Arsenal were considered heavy favourites, but Ray Harford’s Luton Town had been performing well in the First Division and were raring for this cup final.
Gus Caesar errors and Andy Dibble heroics make the difference in this frantic cup final in front of 95,000 at Wembley which features four goals in the game’s last 20 minutes.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Faye Carruthersis a presenter and reporter for Sky Sports, talkSPORT, IMG and many more.
Listen to every Greatest Games podcast ever, here.
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David Jones joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember the second 1997 FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
David Jones presents Super Sunday and Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
Listen to every Greatest Games podcast ever, here.
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It’s a World Cup final edition of Greatest Games! Herbie Sykes joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss Italy’s first World Cup triumph on home soil in 1934.
Mussolini’s Italy greeted the world for the second Fifa World Cup competition, the first to feature teams from three continents. In a tournament designed to highlight Italian superiority and values, the only team left standing in their way of lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy – then called “Victory” – was Czechoslovakia.
Italy would emerge victorious, albeit in a victory shrouded by accusations of bribery, corruption and meddling, and the fascist anthem Giovinezza would play out in celebration around the Stadio Nazionale in Rome.
If you can ever spare the time to leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from, it could really help. Thanks for your support!
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Herbie Sykes is a Turin-based journalist who specialises in the history of road bicycle racing and an author of a number of books including the award-winning The Race Against The Stasiand recently Juve: 100 Years of an Italian Footballing Dynasty.
Listen to every Greatest Games podcast ever, here.
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Back to Wembley for this week’s Greatest Games as Maciej Iwański joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss a famous draw between England and Poland in October 1973.
After suffering defeat in Chorzow in June, Alf Ramsey’s side needed to win in order to avoid missing the World Cup finals for the first time since their first entry in 1950. However, the heroics of goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski helped Poland secure their spot at the World Cup at England’s expense and managed to make a fool of Brian Clough in the process.
If you can ever spare the time to leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from, it could really help. Thanks for your support!
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilsonfounded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Maciej Iwański is a presenter on TVP Sport in Poland and a member of the Ballon d’Or jury.
Subscribe to our quarterly magazine: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/
Listen to every Greatest Games podcast ever, here.
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Rory Smith joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller on this week’s Greatest Games to reflect on one of football’s most highly-anticipated fixtures to have never even happened – the postponed 2018 Copa Libertadores final second-leg between River Plate and Boca Juniors.
A rousing 2-2 draw at La Bombonera had perfectly set-up a winner-takes-all Copa Libertadores superclásico final – the like of which never to have been witnessed before in the 58-year history of the competition.
However, it was an occasion that proved too seismic to even taken place – where it was originally intended to have been hosted, at least.
The local and global significance of the superclásico, Conmebol tribulations, Jacaranda trees and more.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Rory Smith is the chief soccer correspondent for the New York Times, a regular on BBC Radio Five Live and author of Mister: The Men Who Gave The World The Game.
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This week on Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller discuss a 1954 World Cup semi-final with Martin Da Cruz – Hungary 4 Uruguay 2.
Going into the match in Lausanne, Switzerland, Hungary’s ‘Mighty Magyars’ hadn’t lost a full international since 1950 – winning Olympic gold and thrashing England a couple of times in that time. But of course, Uruguay were yet to lost a World Cup fixture themselves, winning the inaugural competition in 1930 and then in 1950.
Two international football heavyweights meet in a defining fixture at a pivotal time in their footballing histories.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Martin da Cruz is an Australia-based PhD student, researcher and writer specialising in Uruguayan football history, contributor to The Blizzard and is currently working on his first book on the early years of the Uruguayan game.
Order our latest quarterly – including how the COVID-19 pandemic changed football, a look at a selection of infamous footballing individuals and an investigation of the Afghanistan women’s national team and their fight for justice – Issue 40.
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Leon Mann is this week’s guest on Greatest Games, joining Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember the 1991 FA Cup semi-final North London Derby between Terry Venables’ Tottenham and George Graham’s Arsenal.
Rather than traipsing the sides up to the midlands, the tie became the first-ever FA Cup semi-final to be hosted at Wembley. This meant a first Wembley trip for Leon and a grand setting to further encourage Mr Paul Gascoigne for the occasion. What followed was a clash of styles between two cherished managers and one of the great semi-final performances.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Leon Mann is an interviewer, consultant, filmmaker and founder of BCOMS and the Football Black List.
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This week on Greatest Games, Brian Homewood joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the 1981 Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final first-leg between West Ham United and Dinamo Tbilisi.
So to the Boleyn Ground for this one, where the ardent West Ham crowd – then used to cruising second division and on the verge of promotion – warmly welcomed the Soviet Cup winners from Georgia. The reception was shortly followed by disbelief as the Georgians picked apart the FA Cup holders on a blustery March night in East London.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Brian Homewood is a freelance journalist based in Portugal, contributor of Reuters, World Soccer, ESPN and When Saturday Comes among others.
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On Greatest Games this week, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Cecilia Lagos to remember the 1962 World Cup group stage tie between hosts, Chile, and two-time World champions, Italy – the ‘Battle of Santiago’.
David Coleman’s introduction to the BBC’s broadcast of this game is the stuff of legends – “The game you are about to see is the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football in the history of the game…” it began.
Ceci, Jonathan and Marcus remember the remarkable events which unfolded just months after an earthquake devastated the host nation and were stirred by the comments of two European journalists.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Cecilia Lagos is a Chilean freelance European football correspondent based in the Netherlands, football writer and content producer for The Tactical Room as well as her own YouTube channel, Sportiva.
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Laurence McKenna is our guest on Greatest Games this week to rewind back just five years to Liverpool’s last-gasp Europa League quarter-final win against Borussia Dortmund at Anfield.
Laurence, Jonathan and Marcus remember the landmark moments of Jurgen Klopp’s early days on Merseyside, recall the stars of the side that Jurgen inherited from his predecessor Brendan Rodgers and ask what is it that makes European nights on the Kop so special?
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Laurence McKenna is most notably the creator and host of The Kick Off, The True Geordie Podcast and The Front Three.
Subscribe to our quarterly magazine: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/blzzrd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blzzrd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblizzard__/
This week on Greatest Games, Paul Myers joins Jonathan and Marcus to discuss the 2012 Cup of Nations final and one of the most emotional stories in football history.
Extraordinarily reaching the final meant that Zambia would compete to win their first-ever Cup of Nations in Libreville, Gabon – the city where 30 passengers and crew, including the Zambia national team and support staff, lost their lives in a tragic plane crash on the way to a World Cup qualifier in Dakar.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Paul Myers is the sports editor at Radio France International’s English service.
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On this edition of Greatest Games, Gary Al-Smith is on the pod to remember a dramatic Afcon semi-final which took place six years ago on Friday alongside Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller.
Tournament hosts, Equatorial Guinea, meet a Ghana side managed by Avram Grant and looking in great stead to win the Cup of Nations. The hosts’ fans weren’t short of optimism and unduly encouraged to be so confident that 2015 was their year, leading to an outpouring of emotion when their hopes of glory diminished in Malabo.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Gary Al-Smith is a sports journalist reporting locally and internationally from Ghana, contributing to the BBC, CNN and The New York Times as well as being a Unicef ambassador.
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This week on Greatest Games, Richard Jolly joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss one of the Premier League’s most extraordinary results ever – Manchester City’s 6-1 win away at Old Trafford in 2011.
'A statement' undermines quite what happened on this day. The trio looks back on how the Manchester clubs reached this point, the starring members of Roberto Mancini’s 2011-12 Premier League-winning side and much more.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Richard Jolly is a football journalist for the National, the Guardian, the Observer, the Straits Times, the Independent, FourFourTwo, Sporting Life and contributor to The Blizzard.
Subscribe to our quarterly magazine: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/blzzrd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blzzrd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblizzard__/
On this episode of Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Uli Hesse as they remember the 1985-86 Bundesliga relegation/promotion playoff which could’ve seen Borussia Dortmund drop out of the top-flight.
Uli, Jonathan and Marcus discuss the troubles facing of German football in the 80s, the remarkable desperate situation Borussia Dortmund found themselves in and the chaotic scenes which helped ensure their survival.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Uli Hesse is an author and journalist who has written extensively on German football, with books including Tor! The Story of German Football, Bayern: Creating a Global Superclub and Building the Yellow Wall: The Incredible Rise and Cult Appeal of Borussia Dortmund.
Subscribe to our quarterly magazine: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/
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In this week’s Greatest Games, Saša Ibrulj takes Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller back to Florence in 1990 for Yugoslavia and Argentina’s World Cup quarter-final.
With social instability in the backdrop of this fixture for both nations, the potential ramifications of this fixture could have extended far beyond football. Reigning champions, Argentina, hoped to reach another semi-final whilst Yugoslavia’s talented side looked to establish themselves as genuine tournament contenders for the new decade.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Saša Ibrulj is a football writer, a columnist for TeleSport, a contributor to the Guardian, World Soccer, ESPN and many others.
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In this week’s Greatest Games, Paul Hayward joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller for a tactical review of one of the World Cup’s most famous matches – the 1970 Group C encounter between Brazil and England.
For holders England, the 1970 summer kicked off with controversy after the skipper, Bobby Moore was arrested in Colombia before the World Cup had even begun for allegedly stealing a bracelet from a Bogata jewellers. The preparation was far from ideal, but the meeting with Brazil set the tournament alight – the two tournament favourites toe-to-toe under the blazing Mexican sun. The match that unveiled proved to be a tactical turning point in international football history.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Paul Hayward is one of the most recognisable names in British sports journalism, having written for the Guardian, the Independent, the Mail and until recently the chief sports reporter at The Telegraph. Paul was also ghostwriter to Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Robson and is currently working on a biography of the England men's football team.
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Maher Mezahi joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller for this week’s episode of Greatest Games to look back on the chaotic World Cup qualifying play-off between north African rivals Algeria and Egypt in 2009.
The match was the third of the year between the two sides played on neutral grounds in Omdurman, Sudan. The rivalry between the two nations resurfaced at the previous meeting in Cairo, just four days prior, as fans clashed before and after the match. The tension was paramount in Sudan as the stakes were high with qualification for the 2010 World Cup, the first hosted in Africa, on the line in this one-off clash.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Maher Mezahi is an Algerian journalist covering sport in north Africa with contributions to the BBC, the Guardian, the Telegraph, Al Jazeera and many more.
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Melissa Reddy is on this week’s Greatest Games, joining Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss a seven-goal thriller between Liverpool and Manchester City in January 2018.
Oozing invincibility, Manchester City were flying at the top of the Premier League having won 20 of 22 fixtures so far. But they were yet to visit Anfield, where Jurgen Klopp was looking for an invigorating response after the record sale of Philippe Coutinho. Both sides flew out of the traps and produced one of the most thrilling Premier League encounters in recent memory.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Melissa Reddy is a senior football correspondent at the Independent, author of the newly-released book Believe Us: How Jurgen Klopp Transformed Liverpool into Title Winners, and host of the new podcast Between The Lines.
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This week, Harry Pearson joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the third fixture of the 1998 World Cup – Italy 2 Chile 2.
Having reached the final four years ago, Cesare Maldini’s Who’s Who of Italian football in the 90s were hoping to get off to a flyer against Chile. However, with one of the tournament’s most exciting strike partnerships headlining Chile’s starting XI, this World Cup 98 fixture wasn’t to go as entirely expected.
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Sid Lowe joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss a game, a team and a Spanish principality close to his heart – this week’s Greatest Game is the Asturian derby of January 1997 – Sporting Gijón 0 Real Oviedo 0.
Managed by Juanma Lillo, now assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Real Oviedo headed to the Molinón followed by thousands of away supporters – some of whom were sporting a workman’s helmet to avoid head injuries from the expectant missiles fired from distance by rival fans. In this episode, hear how Sid developed his infatuation for Spanish and Asturian football and what it was like for a group of English lads to follow Real Oviedo in the mid-nineties.
We've been recording episodes of Greatest Games remotely – firstly to ensure social distancing measures are being adhered to – but also to allow us to invite guests from around the world, like Sid, to appear. We apologise for any audio lapses which occur within this episode, in particular the opening 18 minutes.
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Jeff Brown is this week’s guest on Greatest Games as he joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to look back on Sunderland’s unexpected 4-1 win against Chelsea at the Stadium of Light.
Heading into the 1999-00 campaign, Gianluca Vialli’s Chelsea were looking to mount a genuine title challenge – asserted after an opening day 4-0 win against the Black Cats at Stamford Bridge. But any serious challenge to the league leaders was undone by Sunderland on the return fixture as Peter Reid’s men put four past The Blues in the first 38 minutes.
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This week on Greatest Games Priya Ramesh joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the 1994-95 Champions League final at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna.
The youthful Ajax side which Louis van Gaal had assembled were heading into the final in unassailable form, having lost just one game in all competitions all season. In their way of winning a first European title since 1973, and asserting themselves as one of the greatest teams in European club football history, were the reigning champions, AC Milan.
About the panel:Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Priya Ramesh is a football writer specialising in Dutch football, contributor to the Guardian, The Blizzard, FourFourTwo and many more.
Preorder Issue 38, our newest release, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issues
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On Greatest Games this week, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Alex Holiga to discuss the final game of Euro 2008 qualifying in Group E between England and Croatia.
A late winner for Israel against Guus Hiddink’s Russia just four days beforehand meant the task required to achieve qualification for the 2008 European Championships was simple for England. Or so they rather obnoxiously thought. As the rain poured on Wembley, the well-equipped Steve McClaren failed to prepare England for the draw they needed.
About the panel:Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Mark Langdon is the head of content at the Racing Post, contributor to talkSPORT, Football Weekly and many more.
Join Jonathan, Marcus and guests for our upcoming Live Q&A event – Live At Your Place 2: theblizzard.co.uk/news/your-place-again
Order Issue 38, our newest release, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-eight
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
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In this week’s Greatest Games Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Mark Langdon as they look back to the 2004 Champions League quarter-final between Deportivo and AC Milan
A 4-1 loss at the San Siro, a Milan fortress at the time, gave Deportivo an almost hopeless task at the Riazor in the second-leg – overcoming a three-goal deficit against the current champions and tournament favourites. A game to keep half an eye on very quickly became something extraordinary as Javier Irureta’s team flew out the blocks and got at Milan’s famous backline early doors.
About the panel:Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Mark Langdon is the head of content at the Racing Post, contributor to talkSPORT, Football Weekly and many more.
Join Jonathan, Marcus and guests for our upcoming Live Q&A event – Live At Your Place 2: theblizzard.co.uk/news/your-place-again
Order Issue 38, our newest release, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-eight
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
For commercial enquiries, contact: info@theblizzard.co.uk
This week, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Nihal Arthanayake to discuss Spurs’ dramatic 2019 Champions League semi-final second-leg in Amsterdam against Ajax. There was disappointment at the recently opened new home of Tottenham Hotspur in the first-leg and after de Ligt and Ziyech increased Ajax’s aggregate lead to three, a depleted Spurs looked vastly on the verge of crashing out of the Champions League whilst Ajax fans bellowed Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds at half-time. But Lucas Moura and a load of cojones ensured an emotional second-half and a remarkable comeback.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Nihal Arthanayake is a broadcaster and TV presenter. He currently presents a daily daytime show on BBC 5 Live between 1-4PM.
Order Issue 38, our newest release, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-eight
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
For commercial enquiries, contact: info@theblizzard.co.uk
This week, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Carl Worswick to discuss the 1994 World Cup qualifier which saw Argentina host Colombia in Buenos Aires. Heading into the match, qualification for the 94 World Cup was not yet confirmed for either side, however Colombia's successful campaign so far meant they were only required to avoid defeat. But they were facing an Argentina side which had recently won a second of consecutive Copa América titles and hadn’t recorded a loss on home soil in six years.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s a contributor to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Carl Worswick is a British journalist based in Bogata, dedicated to Colombian football. Carl has contributed to the Guardian, World Soccer, The Blizzard and many more.
Order Issue 38, our newest release, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-eight
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
For commercial enquiries, contact: info@theblizzard.co.uk
In episode two of Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Daniel Edwards to discuss the 1967 Intercontinental Cup play-off between Copa Libertadores and European Cup winners, Racing Club and Celtic.
After a pair of acrimonious games in Glasgow and Buenos Aires, the tie would have to be decided on neutral ground at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay. Billy McNeill captained the European champions, with Jock Stein on the sidelines, into a game has since been dubbed “The Battle of Montevideo”.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s a contributor to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Daniel Edwards is an Argentina-based football journalist regularly contributing to Goal, Bleacher Report and appears on English-language Argentine football podcast, Hand of Pod.
Order Issue 38, our newest release, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-eight
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
For commercial enquiries, contact: info@theblizzard.co.uk
In this first episode of the new season of Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Oluwashina Okeleji to discuss Nigeria’s victory over Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
Ivory Coast’s squad full of players plying their trade across Europe were widely fancied to win their first Afcon title since 1992. In contrast, Nigeria were wallowing under Stephen Keshi after a poor group stage, which convinced Nigerian FA executives to book flights back home from South Africa days before their quarter-final against the tournament favourites.
About the panel:
Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s a contributor to a number of publications including The Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.
Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.
Oluwashina Okeleji is a multimedia sports journalist for the BBC, having also contributed to World Soccer magazine, Al Jazeera and of course, The Blizzard.
What Russia’s World Cup stadiums say about Vladimir Putin’s government.
In Episode One Hundred and Thirty Five, we feature “Diplomatic Manoeuvres” by Luke Connelly, first published in Issue Five of The Squall, in September 2020.
Read Issue Five of The Squall for a recommended £3: theblizzard.co.uk/news/ground
Discover Man the Footballer: Homo Passiens: theblizzard.co.uk/news/homo-passiens-man-footballer
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
Preorder Issue 38, our upcoming edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-eight
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76)
Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
Robert Lewandowski is proving the value of the old-fashioned striker. But what created him?
In Episode One Hundred and Thirty Four, we feature "The Throwback" by Maciej Iwanski, first published in Issue 19, in December 2015.
Discover Man the Footballer: Homo Passiens: theblizzard.co.uk/news/homo-passiens-man-footballer
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
Read Issue Four of The Squall for a recommended £3: theblizzard.co.uk/news/red
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76) Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
What happens physiologically when we lose our rag?
In Episode One Hundred and Thirty Three, we feature "The Science of the Red Mist" by Ben Welch, first published in Issue Four of The Squall, in August 2020.
Read Issue Four of The Squall for a recommended £3: theblizzard.co.uk/news/red
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76) Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
Sergio Ramos and the art of the red card.
In Episode One Hundred and Thirty Two, we feature “The Lord of Misrule” by Emile Avanessian, first published in Issue Four of The Squall, in August 2020.
Read Issue Four of The Squall for a recommended £3: theblizzard.co.uk/news/red
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76) Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
In Episode One Hundred and Thirty One, a special edition of our regular podcast, we feature “A Letter to Fans” from the pages of Man the Footballer: Homo Passiens.
Discover more from Man the Footballer, including the wonderful illustrative work of satirical artist Matt Kenyon: theblizzard.co.uk/news/homo-passiens-man-footballer
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
Read Issue Four of The Squall for a recommended £3: theblizzard.co.uk/news/red
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76) Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
What if Alex Ferguson had retired in 2001, and Sven-Göran Eriksson had replaced him at Old Trafford?
In Episode One Hundred and Thirty, we feature “The Rejected Retraction” by Richard Jolly, first published in Issue Three of The Squall, in July 2020.
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
Read Issue Three of The Squall for a recommended £3: theblizzard.co.uk/news/sliding-doors
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76) Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
How Bielsa's honesty and hard work re-energised Leeds United.
In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Nine, we take a look back to "No Airs" by Rob Bagchi, first published in Issue 36, in March 2020.
Immortalise football history with The Goal Hanger: thegoalhanger.co.uk/collections/blizzard
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76) Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
What if Agüero had gone down against QPR in 2012, leaving Mario Balotelli to take the penalty?
In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Eight, we take a look at "Not Always Him" by Huw Davies, published in Issue Three of The Squall, in July 2020.
Read and support The Squall: theblizzard.co.uk/news/sliding-doors
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76)
Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
How two sets of brothers chart the changing face of football in Manchester.In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Seven, we take a look at "The Nevilles and the Gallaghers" by John Brewin, published in Issue 28, in March 2018.
You can order Issue 28 here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-twenty-eight
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76)
Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
If carbon emissions targets are to be met, football’s relentless expansion must stop.
In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Six, we take a look at “The Green Future” by Tim Walters, published in Issue 37, in June 2020.
You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Read by: Tim Adams (@TimAdams76)
Produced by: Ryan Arnold (@_RyanArnold__)
The night in 1962 when third-division Crystal Palace pushed Real Madrid to the limit. In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Five, we take a look at “When Puskás came to Selhurst Park” by Jo Harman, published in Issue 37, in June 2020. You can order Issue 37, our latest edition, here: theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-seven
Unlock our archives with a subscription from just £20: theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
How fans fought back against the rise of the far right on the Elland Road terraces. In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Four, we take a look at “Leeds United v the National Front” by Gary Hartley, published in Issue 35, in December 2019. You can order Issue 35, our latest edition, here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…ue-thirty-five And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Globalisation, the Third Way, the Premier League and the Brexit backlash against the elites. In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Three, we take a look at “Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?” by Anthony Clavane, published in Issue 28, in March 2018. You can order our latest edition, Issue 35, here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…ue-thirty-five And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Why a certain level of cynical fouling is essential for football's balance. In Episode One Hundred and Twenty Two, we take a look at “The Yoshida Defence” by Mark Thompson, published in Issue 28, in March 2018. You can order our latest edition, Issue 35, here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-five
And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Adama Traoré dribbles more than almost anybody else in the world. But what is he actually good for? In Episode One Hundred and Twenty One, we take a look at “The Dribber” by Sam France, published in our latest issue, Issue 34, in September 2019. You can order Issue 34 here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…e-thirty-four And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
What Reading's attempts at a club song tell us about the hollowness of modern football. In Episode One Hundred and Twenty, we take a look at "Royal Dissent" by Edward Sugden, published in our latest issue, Issue 34, in September 2019. You can order Issue 34 here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…e-thirty-four And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Brazil won the Copa América but their triumph was hijacked by Jair Bolsonaro. In Episode One Hundred and Nineteen, we take an early look at "Mediocrity and the Beast" by Ewan MacKenna, to be published in Issue 34, in September 2019. You can preorder Issue 34 here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…e-thirty-four And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Champions League Final, Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, 25 May 2005. Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by freelance sports journalist, John Brewin, to discuss the 2005 Champions League Final between Milan and Liverpool. It was the last match that the Liverpool squad at the time would play together, many aware that they were soon to be replaced. Standing in their way of a Champions League winners medal were Milan who could boast a squad full of superstars. Despite the disparity between the sides, it turned out to be one of the greatest finals of all time. Subscribe now: www.theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Recorded at: outsetstudio.com
Produced by: Jack Elderton & Ryan Arnold
FA Cup semi-final, Wembley Stadium, London, 16 April 2011 Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by football journalist at The Independent, Jack Pitt-Brooke, to discuss the 2011 FA Cup semi-final between Manchester City and Manchester United. The expectation of silverware was beginning to stir at Manchester City as fans and pundits looked for justification for the millions being spent by the relatively new ownership regime led by Sheikh Mansour. The game not only set City on their way to their first FA Cup final since 1981 but also represented a significant moment in the development of the modern Manchester City and the landscape of football in Manchester today. Subscribe now: www.theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Recorded at: outsetstudio.com
Produced by: Jack Elderton & Ryan Arnold
Copa del Rey Final, Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, Barcelona, 17 March 2004. In the first episode of The Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by European football correspondent and author of Di Stéfano, the Alfredo Di Stéfano biography, Ian Hawkey to discuss the 2004 Copa del Rey final. In the 2003/04 season, Real Madrid were hurtling towards their first ever treble. With a four-point buffer at the top of La Liga and a Champions League semi-final against Monaco coming up, they went into the Copa del Rey final against Real Zaragoza full of expectation. What happened next sent the club on a downward spiral that signalled the end of the Galácticos... Subscribe now: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Recorded at: https://outsetstudio.com
Produced by: Jack Elderton & Ryan Arnold
The trailer for our brand new podcast series "The Greatest Games" where Marcus Speller and Jonathan Wilson will be joined by a guest each week to discuss a game that represents a significant moment in footballing history. Subscribe to The Blizzard now: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Harry Trainer was a centre-forward for Wales and Wrexham, but his dark side ended his career. In Episode One Hundred and Eighteen, we take an early look at "The Jewel Thief" by Paul Brown, to be published in Issue 33, in June 2019. You can preorder Issue 33 here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-three
And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
The entrepreneur, the village team and the experiment in humanistic capitalism. In Episode One Hundred and Seventeen, we take a look back to "Rise and Fall of Castel Rigone" by Pedar Foss, first published in Issue 14, in September 2014. You can buy our latest magazine, Issue 32, here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…sue-thirty-two And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Gretna's rise was a romantic fairy-tale; their collapse provides grimly real lessons for all of Scottish football. In Episode One Hundred and Sixteen, we take a look back to "End of the Road" by Richard Winton, first published in Issue 7, in December 2012. You can buy our latest magazine, Issue 32, here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/i…sue-thirty-two And access our entire archives here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
Milan Mandarić on exile from Yugoslavia, success in California and his return to Europe. In Episode One Hundred and Fifteen, we take a look back to "Capitalist Traitor" by Lukáš Vráblik, first published in Issue 27, in December 2017. You can buy our latest magazine, Issue 32, here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-two
And access our entire archives here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles
The audio recording from the first half of our event in London on Thursday 21st March. The panel, hosted by Marcus Speller, featured Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Miguel Delaney, and discussed favourite Euros memories, the future of the game, diversity in football media and finally being proven right about Joachim Löw.
The story of Zanzibar’s long and successful struggle for international recognition. In Episode One Hundred and Thirteen we take a look back to "Offshore Development" by Simone Pierotti, first published in Issue 25, in June 2017. You can buy our latest mag, Issue 32, here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-two
The story of how Richarlison escaped the drug gangs of Nova Venécia to make a career in the Premier League. In episode One Hundred and Twelve we take a look forward to "Another Place" by Simon Hart, due to be published in March 2019. You can preorder Issue 32 here: https://theblizzard.co.uk/shop/product/issue-thirty-two
Buy tickets for The Blizzard Live in London here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-the-blizzard-football-quarterly-live-in-london-tickets-56925576933?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete
The 2011 French race furore ignored the diversity of France's footballing culture. In episode One Hundred and Eleven we take a look back to "What Makes a Nation?" by Philippe Auclair, first published in Issue 2 in September 2011. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/what-makes-nation
For access to the entire Blizzard collection, subscribe here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/subscriptions
Everton have had two Alex Youngs: one’s the subject of a Ken Loach film, the other killed his brother. In episode One Hundred and Ten we take a look back to "Namesakes" by James Corbett, first published in Issue 17 in June 2015. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/namesakes
Issue 17, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats.
The entire audio recording from our event in Dublin on Monday 3rd December. The panel, hosted by Andrew Mangan, featured Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Miguel Delaney, and discussed the Premier League "title race", the worst tackles ever seen and Jose Mourinho's future.
"I wasn’t at the stadium in Lyon. I was watching the game on a not-so-big TV screen in a pub near Soho Square in central London, and Japan still went out of the tournament as the bottom of the group losing all three games. But there, I witnessed Japan making a mark, albeit a small one, in the world of football. After going 2-0 down, we scored a goal, the greatest joy in the game of football – our first World Cup goal. "To non-Japanese eyes, it might have looked a mere consolation late in the second half. It was quite a simple goal, too: a cross from the left was headed back across and the ball was met in the six-yard box. Yet, to us, it was a goal screaming, “We’re here in the World Cup!” I also happened to make my presence known in the pub as soon as the ball was in the back of the net by shouting, “Yeah!” and punching the air with delight… alone." In episode One Hundred and Eight we take a look back at "At Home" by Shinobu Yamanaka, first published in Issue Twenty Nine in June 2018. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/at-home
Issue Twenty Nine, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The first half of our live event in Manchester on Thursday 30th August. Yes, we know the sound quality isn't the greatest throughout, and we apologise, but would like to bring you at least some of the evening's discussion for those who couldn't make it along. The panel, hosted by Rory Smith, featured Jonathans Wilson and Northcroft and Miguel Delaney, and in the first half of the evening focussed pretty much exclusively on developments over on the red side of Manchester.
"The fact that he was asked to change the title only adds to the effect. He had picked up the phrase from the broadcast media. So how could it be inappropriate for broadcast media? What kind of place was this? In such circumstances, what could be a better alternate title than “Alternate Title”? Micky Dolenz had come, walked down our streets, and with no song-writing finesse to filter through the experience, had successfully transformed his confusion about English contradictions into art. Our craft is less visceral, less intuitive and without the same emotional impact. But we can go deeper. We have the opportunity to identify the contradictions in a footballing culture and then analyse the tensions between them. By way of example, let us take Brazil, my home for the past two decades. A number of articles in the history of this publication have done their bit to explode the myth of Brazilian football as a kind of Carnaval in boots, a romanticised state of nature in which self-expression is all and the scoreline is nothing." In episode One Hundred and Five we take a look back at "Alternate Title" by Tim Vickery, first published in Issue Twelve in March 2014. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/alternate-title
Issue Twelve, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Saelua's role in giving some dignity back to one of the worst teams in the world made waves across the globe. "Korean TV came to my house to do an interview. It was kind of weird," Saelua said. "I would have people from New York call in and say they wanted to come to my house and do a photo shoot and interviews and stuff. All the attention was very overwhelming." "There was less of a ripple in the trans community. Plenty don't care about the "macho" elements of sport, according to Juliet Jacques, a writer who frequently tackles trans and football topics. "Those who do like football realised that the anomaly of a 'transgender' woman playing for a men's team owed much to American Samoa's lowly international position, the small resources and pool of talent available to them etc," Jacques said, "and that Saelua's debut was a good thing to see but unlikely to change the deeply ingrained sexism, split between male and female and lack of space for anyone between male and female in western professional football." In episode One Hundred and Four we revisit "Breaking the Mould" by Zac Lee Rigg, first published in Issue Seven back in December 2012. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/breaking-mould
Issue Seven, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Only two things dominated the lives of any schoolboy growing up in Johannesburg in the late 1970s – sport and girls. Girls were a proposition too various and complicated to contemplate, so we sublimated frantically and played more sport than we were already playing. Scratch soccer games at break-time. Cricket, rugby, touch-rugby. We swam, considered water polo. We even tried athletics. "If we discovered that we were ill-suited to rugby and self-loathing to any great degree, we heard the distant call of hockey. Although close by, the hockey fields were, strictly speaking, outside of the school grounds, which should have told us something. Over the merry clash of sticks we slowly realised that it was a sport reserved for the intellectual and the gloriously eccentric. I played it happily for five years." In episode One Hundred and Three we look at "Blue Period" by Luke Alfred from the recently released Issue Twenty Eight (published in March 2018). Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/blue-period
Issue Twenty Eight, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
Issue Twenty Eight is out now, and jam-packed full of interesting and enlightening articles - we've got David Winner, Anthony Clavane and Jonathan Wilson tackling Brexit; interviews with Andi Herzog and Carlos Alberto Parreira; a photo essay from the Polish non-leagues; eight of the worst seasons in living memory; John Brewin on the Nevilles, the Gallaghers and football in Manchester; Sean Cole on Notts County's failed dalliance with Munto Finance and much more. Head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/articles to dip into the most recent issue, or any of the 600-odd articles from our back catalogue.
"Atlético Madrid 0 SpVgg Fürth 2; Lucchese 1 Manchester City 0; Triestina 3 Ajax 0; Benfica 0 Rot Weiss Essen 1. Not, as might be supposed, the scorelines from some long-forgotten round of the Uefa or Intertoto Cup, but a rather different measure of footballing success." In episode One Hundred and Two we revisit "The Clubs Behind the Countries" by Richard Jolly, first published in Issue Thirteen in June 2014. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/clubs-behind-countries
Issue Thirteen, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"It all goes to show that less can sometimes be more. This might jar with US thinking about sport, but keeping international competitions so open that the best teams rarely meet — or possibly don't at all — has been football's secret master-stroke. It turns the latter stages into must-view events. The Champions League brand plays heavily on the exclusivity and scarcity of its product." In episode One Hundred and One we look back on "Dessert Comes at the End by Raphael Honigstein, first published in Issue Zero in MArch 2011. In it, he argues that football's administrators must beware killing the golden goose. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/dessert-comes-end
Issue Zero, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Beck would go to great lengths in search of the smallest advantage. Visiting sides were made to feel as unwelcome as possible, with the heating turned off in the cramped away dressing room and flat, soggy practice balls given out. It was psychological warfare. The impact of these unsporting practices and intimidation tactics is impossible to quantify, and many felt they were done simply for effect – pseudoscience to create a hostile atmosphere. Meanwhile, Cambridge players were forced to take ice-cold showers before kick-off to ensure their alertness. A mythology developed around these rituals that remains to this day. Some opponents didn’t take kindly to it." In episode One Hundred we revisit 'Route One' by Sean Cole, first published in Issue Twenty Seven in December 2017. In it, he examines how John Beck’s long-ball theories brought unprecedented success to Cambridge United in the 1990s. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/route-one
Issue Twenty Seven, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"That 1997-98 Uefa Cup campaign was the last we saw of the 'pure' Ronaldo. Nike's 'R9' brand soon sprang into action, forgetting it had a human at its core. The striker changed his Inter shirt number from 10 to 9 and became the greatest commodity in world sport, selling everything from tyres to sunglasses. Rushed back from one serious injury after another, he lost two years of his career to chronic knee problems until making his comeback in the 2002 World Cup, scoring eight goals on the way to Brazil's victory. He was still the best of his generation and greatest goalscorer the World Cup has ever seen, but never again the turbo-charged extraterrestrial of Barcelona and that maiden season at the San Siro. " In episode Ninety Nine we look back at "Ronaldo in Moscow" by Sheridan Bird, first published in Issue Four in March 2012. In it, he examines how a slalom through the mud in Moscow in Uefa Cup tie against Spartak Moscow helped confirm the genius of the player known as 'O Fenomeno'. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/ronaldo-moscow
Issue Twenty Four, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
For this week’s episode we present the most recent offering from By Association, an award-winning narrative podcast about football, based in Australia. They took inspiration from Davidde Corran’s article ‘Tour of Duty’, originally published in Issue Three of The Blizzard in December 2011. For a brand new audio documentary each month, subscribe to By Association on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your audio output. Learn more about the show at their website – byassociation.audio
To find out more about that article head back to Episode 22 of the podcast, or search it out on theblizzard.co.uk
Davidde Corran is an England-based Australian football journalist who works across TV, radio and print. Twitter: @DaviddeCorran If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.
Decade by decade league tables chart the changing tides of footballing success In Episode Ninety Seven of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "The Sweep of History" by Richard Jolly, first published in Issue Twenty Three in December 2016. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/sweep-history Issue Twenty Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
Why is US Soccer so reluctant to promote one of the oldest tournaments in the world? "Such has been the paucity of tournament coverage that for the past two decades, it’s no exaggeration to say that covering both the past and present of the Open Cup has been close to the sole preserve of one man in his free time. " In Episode Ninety Six of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at "Free for All" by Tom Dunmore, first published in Issue Twenty Six in September 2017. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/free-all
Issue Twenty Six, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"To suggest that Leeds United have kept their descent into torpor rather quiet would most likely be met with cries of derision. "Of course all the key features of a very public fall are there. For an abridged version of the last decade, try: goldfish, admin, El-Hadji Diouf. The rest of the seemingly limitless archive of public domain material for the casual haters to quote doesn't seem worth mentioning anymore. " In Episode Ninety Five of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "In the Shadow of the Goldfish" by Gary Hartley, first published in Issue Eight in March 2013. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/shadow-goldfish
Issue Eight, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"The first full international match between France and England was played on 15 May 1923 at the Stade Pershing in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris. It was an interesting game, attended by an impressive 30,000 spectators, despite driving rain and hail. France had beaten an England Amateurs team at this same venue in 1921, but a similar result was not expected against the full England side. "The French team was all amateur, drawn from the regional Paris league, and its best player, Paul Nicolas of Red Star Paris, was out injured. The England team, captained by Charlie Buchan, was mostly professional but included three amateurs and six debutants. An injury to the forward Frank Hartley meant England played much of the match with 10 men. Nevertheless, the English dominated throughout and won 4-1, thanks in part to an early own goal from the French defender Pierre Mony – the footballer who got away with murder." In Episode Ninety Four of the Blizzard Podcast we look back on "Crime of Passion" by Paul Brown, first published in Issue Twenty Three in December 2016. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/crime-passion
Issue Twenty Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"In the summer of 2002, Angelo Di Livio was competing at the World Cup in the shiny new stadiums of Japan and Korea. A couple of months later, he was playing in the Italian fourth division at grounds that held barely 4,000 people. This was not a dramatic fall from grace, however — this was his choice. "Just a year after winning the Coppa Italia, Fiorentina were declared bankrupt. Their miserable final season, 2001-02, ended in relegation from Serie A, which had seemed likely from the moment in September that Enrico Chiesa suffered a season-ending knee injury. With financial problems obvious, Di Livio, the captain, spent most of the season acting as an intermediary between the club's directors and the fans." In Episode Ninety Three of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "In Appreciation of Angelo di Livio" by Michael Cox, first published in Issue Three in December 2011. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/angelo-di-livio
Issue Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"There have been 836 finals matches in the history of the World Cup, played from Belo Horizonte to Busan. Only 19 of those games have been at the Azteca, yet that tiny sample has provided the amphitheatre for ‘the Game of the Century’, the greatest team goal in World Cup history, one of the biggest controversies in the history of the tournament and ‘the Goal of the Century’. Freakishly high quality, from a tiny quantity." In Episode Ninety Two of the Blizzard Podcast we look at "Estadio Azteca", by Mike Gibbons, part of the Stadiums section from the newly-released Issue Twenty Six. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/estadio-azteca
Issue Twenty Six, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"So at a World Cup, what we get is a series of teams intent on defending playing against opponents who, even if they are minded to attack, lack the slickness of a top club side. The result is stodgy football. The 1998 World Cup didn’t feel that special at the time — it was no better than 1994 and no match for 1982 or 1986 — but it stands now as a beacon, as the last good World Cup. Perhaps the institution of the World Cup is too great to disappear, at least in the short term, but sooner or later the poverty of the product is going to become an issue. " In Episode Ninety One of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "Why is the World Cup Boring?" by Jonathan Wilson, first published in Issue Eleven in December 2013. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/why-world-cup-boring
Issue Eleven, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Colchester United, Northampton Town, Stoke City, Swansea City: outsiders have to take a detour to visit the town. If you're looking for the stadium and come across something interesting, you've got lost. "It seems as if no club in England these days can build a stadium without the muscle of a major supermarket chain who use the emotional clout of football as a Trojan horse to win planning permission and part-fund the project. So it's not a shock that many new grounds are functional boxes that don't look much different from supermarkets. With little incentive to be original they are often as bland as their surroundings. And what's chiefly being improved and regenerated: wasteland or the bank balances of landowners and property developers?" In Episode Ninety of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at "Location,. Location, Location" by Tom Dart, first published in Issue Six in 2012. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/location-location-location
New, clean, standardised and sterilised, these arenas suit football's growing sense of itself as a family entertainment product. This seems to owe much to the high production values of the American major leagues, where sport is a spectacle, slickly marketed and brand aware, doing as much as it can to provide reliable fun around the inherently variable quality of the actual matches. But England's present and future is already America's past. While England is copying the suburban American sporting model, city-centre venues are experiencing a renaissance in the US: attractive and highly-visible redevelopment catalysts that ensure downtowns remain a hub of activity after office hours. Issue Six, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“I am going to be a brilliant player,” Bebé said. He wasn’t. To our surprise, given his mediocre showing for the reserves, he made his United debut six days later in a Carling Cup win at Scunthorpe (Ferguson, scouting Champions League opponents Valencia, didn’t see Bebé play then either). It was the first of seven senior appearances. Two even brought goals, albeit in fortunate fashion; a shot that looped up off the Wolves defender George Elokobi and over the goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and a Champions League goal against Bursaspor, courtesy of a deflection off Ali Tandoğan." Episode Eighty Nine of the Blizzard Podcast looks back on 'Bye-bye Bebé' by Richard Jolly, originally published in Issue Fourteen in September 2014. In it he explores one of the most mystifying transfers of recent years - that of the unknown Portuguese forward Bebé to Manchester United. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/bye-bye-bebe
"Yet his shortcomings were apparent and his United career came to an abrupt halt after the 2011 FA Cup win over Crawley. Ferguson’s team were dreadful and Bebé and Obertan, the two wingers, were the worst of a poor bunch. Their non-league counterparts looked more accomplished players." Issue Fourteen, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Watson, described by the Scottish Football Association Annual of 1880-81 as “one of the very best backs we have”, represented two of the 19th century’s most prestigious clubs in Queen’s Park and Corinthians, forging a successful career on both sides of the border as he won multiple domestic trophies and attracted widespread admiration for his robust but proficient style of play. Yet until only recently, Watson’s story had been allowed to fade into history’s murky depths, obscured by supposition and inaccuracy." Episode Eighty Eight of the Blizzard Podcast revisits 'The Unmarked Grave' by Tom Adams, originally published in Issue Ten in September 2013. It looks back on the unknown story of one of football's pioneers - the first black international, Andrew Watson Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/unmarked-grave
"A revered three-time Scottish Cup winner and international captain, Watson had carved out his place in football’s history; having done so as a man of mixed race, he has a strong claim to being one of the most important figures in the early decades of the game. Yet even in his own time, his legend faded. "Following the conclusion of his playing career, Watson moved to Surrey and died there of pneumonia and cardiac arrest at his home in Kew on 8 March 1921 at the age of 64, his occupation simply stated as marine engineer. Watson’s humble grave is even less voluble about the life and career of this remarkable footballer. He surely deserves a richer eulogy." Issue Ten, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"On 14 April 1937, the BBC studios at Alexandra Palace played host to the first television demonstration of snooker, an exhibition of play by Horace Lindrum and Willie Smith. The programme lasted 10 minutes, whereupon it made way for Daffodils (“a display of various types of daffodils from the Daffodil Show” — Radio Times). Another couple of months down the line, and the BBC were off to Wimbledon for the first time. And then, on Thursday 16 September, it was the turn of football, and the world’s first live televised match. "The game had admittedly limited appeal — George Allison’s Arsenal were taking on Arsenal reserves at Highbury — but then only a few hundred houses close to Ally Pally in north London could receive BBC pictures anyway. Arsenal were the natural choice for the BBC’s experiment anyway: Highbury was the closest ground to Ally Pally and had a bespoke gantry for telly cameras in its fancy new East Stand." Episode Eighty Seven of the Blizzard Podcast looks back at 'Football on TV' by Scott Murray, our Eight Bells feature from Issue Eight, originally published in June 2013. It looks back on 8 key moments in the history of televised football, from the first broadcasts in the 1930s to bigger nationwide changes in later decades, via pay-tv and a little bit of controversy along the way. Read the full article here: www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/football-tv
Issue Eight, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"At some point we probably need to grow up and agree what we will and will not allow in our football grounds. Right now, anything goes, except for racist, anti-Semitic and — but seemingly only if Rangers or Celtic are playing — sectarian abuse. And, at some point, we need to ask ourselves why we ban certain speech in football grounds. Is it to make some sort of social statement? Is it simply a commercial decision, to make our stadiums more inviting and pleasant? Is it to make ourselves feel better? "Increasingly, much of the anti-racist stuff in the mainstream media is motivated primarily by the latter two. Nothing wrong with that, of course, unless it lulls us into a false sense of achievement, a sort of "pat-on-the-back" self-congratulatory attitude which leads us to ignore the reality that racial prejudice — if not outright racism — is real and all around us." Episode Eighty Six of the Blizzard Podcast revisits Gabriele Marcotti's 'The Race Card' from Issue Three, originally published in December 2011, which tackles the tricky subject of abuse in our stadiums, and the double standards that sometimes surround it. This article contains some language that may not be appropriate to all listeners, so discretion is advised. Read the full article here: https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/race-card
Issue Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"It was at that point that the original referee arrived. According to the Derby Daily Telegraph, Kirkham claimed to have been “misdirected by a ticket collector at Halifax”, resulting in the missed connection. He’d set off from his home in good time, but arrived at Newcastle Road three hours late. As the teams loitered around the clubhouse at what seemed to be half-time, many in the crowd suspected there had been a hitch – and rumours began to spread that the match wasn’t a league game after all. " Episode Eighty Five of the Blizzard Podcast looks at 'A Game of Three Halves' by David Moonie, the story of why the 1894 meeting of Sunderland and Derby Country stretched to 135 minutes, first published in Issue Twenty Five in June 2017. Issue Twenty Five, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Leyton Orient Football Club is not my life, but it has been the only constant in it. I realise that every major event, every stage, every shifting moment, is connected in some way to this daft, infuriating football team. “It defined my childhood, inspired my education, gave me my sense of humour, united my family. It has brought some joy, but mostly pain. Yet it has always been a wonderful, happy distraction from life’s trials and tribulations. I did not have to support Orient, I could have chosen any team in London, but where my dad trod, my brother and I held his hand and followed.” Episode Eighty Four of the Blizzard Podcast features Setting Sun, Luke Edwards’ emotional article on what Leyton Orient means to him, and how it charts alongside the ups and downs of his own life, first published in Issue Twenty Five in June 2017. As a post-script to the article, since publication the club’s divisive owner Francesco Becchetti has sold up to a consortium led by lifelong Orient fans, so things are thankfully looking up for the club. Issue Twenty Five, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats. Those who want to buy one-off eBooks can still do so – from the Kindle and Google Play stores.
An update on why things have been quiet on the podcast front for the last couple of weeks (aside from a live event and a collaboration with By Association). We've relaunched the website, now with everything we've ever published available online, for free. Listen in for more details, including Jonathan Wilson's editor's note from Issue Twenty Five (which is out now), or just visit www.theblizzard.co.uk to check it out. We'll be back to our regular weekly podcasts from next week.
“There was no fooling the 18,000 spectators at Old Trafford. “Play up, you rotters!” they screamed. The fix was on. They knew it, as Manchester United went through the motions against Liverpool on 2 April 1915, winning 2-0 in a listless performance.” In Episode Eighty Two we revisit ‘The Silenced Crowd’ by Richard Fitzpatrick from Issue Ten, which looks at the greatest scandal in British football in the first half of the twentieth century, as a group of players from two of the country’s greatest sides colluded to fix a match. This episode was produced by James Parkinson as part of a collaboration with By Association, an award-winning narrative podcast about football, based in Australia. For a new audio documentary each month subscribe to By Association wherever you get your audio output, and learn more at the show's website - byassociation.audio If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Ten, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
Despite being on a podcast hiatus while we work on some exciting things behind the scenes we still found time to do a live recording of our Q&A event in Edinburgh last week. This is the second half of that discussion. Hosted by football writer Daniel Gray, the panel of Jonathan Wilson, Jonathan Northcroft and Jonathan Liew took questions from the audience, and discussed footballing matters of import.
Despite being on a podcast hiatus while we work on some exciting things behind the scenes we still found time to do a live recording of our Q&A event in Edinburgh last week. This is the first half of that discussion. Hosted by football writer Daniel Gray, the panel of Jonathan Wilson, Jonathan Northcroft and Jonathan Liew took questions from the audience, and discussed footballing matters of import.
Now glance at the name “Europa League”. What information does it convey? It’s a league for… the abstract concept of Europe? For women who ride off on divine white bulls? Uefa can’t call the competition what it is, since “The Second-Tier Distribution of Teams as Apportioned by Mathematical Coefficients Cup” lacks a certain Heineken Factor." Episode Eighty of the Blizzard Podcast, and Brian Phillips's 'The Other Cup' from Issue Four, first published in March 2012. Uefa's second competition lacks a certain je ne sais quoi, and Brian's not only got the keen eye to skewer its problems, but also suggestions as to how it can be improved, from single elimination knock-out fixtures and neutral venues to add drama. We're taking a short break from the podcast for a couple of weeks, to work on Issue Twenty Five and some top secret behind-the-scenes projects at Blizzard HQ. We'll be back in early June with news of what we've been up to, but in the meantime please subscribe and give us a nice rating on iTunes, to help others find our little podcast. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty Two, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The second half of our Q&A event at Dublin’s Sugar Club held on Monday 24th April. The panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Iain Macintosh, hosted by Eoin McDevitt, take in a range of topics, from Liverpool’s underperformance against bottom half teams to big Sam’s tactics, whether you’d like to be too warm or too cold, and a good amount of Jose/Pep chat. There’s some time spent wondering how historically great managers would fare in the current climate, a dissection of Brendan Rodgers, one club players and non-celebration celebrations, and Jonathan goes into detail on how to counter the 3-4-2-1 formation. Finally, there’s some of the panel’s proudest journalistic moments and stories footballing hard men (featuring Jonathan’s well rehearsed John Kay story). Some of the comments made on the night were strictly off the record, so you’ll notice a couple of dips in the sound on occasion. This is intentional. To make sure that you don’t miss out on such ‘too hot for audio’ content in future, come along to one of our events. If you’re in Scotland then you’re in luck – we’ll be heading to Edinburgh on 25th May with Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Jonathan Northcroft. For details and tickets, head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events
The first half of our Q&A event at Dublin’s Sugar Club held on Monday 24th April. The panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Iain Macintosh, hosted by Eoin McDevitt, take in a range of topics including the weekend’s Clasico between Real Madrid and Barca, along with a hefty amount of Messi/Ronaldo chat. There’s talk on dynastic teams, whether football is still fun, the benefits of being out of Europe for a title challenge, goings on at Leyton Orient as well as Argentinian underperformance and footballing time travel. If you’re based in Scotland and like what you hear we’ll be having another Q&A event in a similar vein at Edinburgh’s Signet Library on 25th May. For details, head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events
"Why Leeds? Well, apart from a rumoured offer from Kuwait, they were the only club that came in for him. Even then, Stein wasn’t the first choice to replace Jimmy Armfield at Elland Road. He wasn’t even second choice. Cussins initially offered the job to Lawrie McMenemy and his suggestion of John Giles was over-ruled by the Leeds board." Episode Seventy Eight of the Blizzard Podcast looks back on "44 Days, Later" by Lawrence Donegan, first published in Issue One back in June 2011. In it, he compares the short-lived tenures of two of football's greatest managers at Leeds United. Don Revie lasted no longer than Brian Clough in the Leeds dugout, and from his inauspicious start it's not hard to see why. "The optimism that greeted the Stein era at Elland Road didn’t disappear — his reputation as a manager and a man saw to that — but it was tempered by a couple of losses in the league, against Manchester City and Tottenham, and two indifferent draws against West Brom in the League Cup. There was very little transfer activity, evidence perhaps that the appeal of playing for Leeds, and for
one of the greatest managers of the post-war era, was not what it once was." If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue One, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while the print edition has sadly sold out. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Now that I’m fully aware of this principle, I look for its application whenever I’m watching football. Whenever a player scores a tremendous goal, I now count back two or three passes in the move to find out who might have been covertly responsible. It’s an approach that I wouldn’t have taken, had it not been for watching Dawson’s Creek; and so if any of you are willing to have a similar
epiphany, I advise you — when no one’s looking — to pick up the DVD." In Episode Seventy Seven of the Blizzard Podcast we look back to 'The Dawson's Creek Principle' by Musa Okwonga, first published in Issue Three back in December 2011. Could it be that a US teen drama, essentially Adrian Mole if filmed by MTV, could explain a facet of modern football? Do you find yourself drawn to a team's 'star player' while all the while thinking that another, unheralded player should be taking all the plaudits and top billing? Does your side have a Pacey Witter to its Dawson Leery? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while the print edition has sadly sold out. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"In some ways Iceland has been lucky. Had the country’s banks collapsed a few years earlier than they did in 2008, there would not have been the same level of investment in football and none of this would have been possible. But by then the pitches were already built, the indoor complexes well established, the coaches already at work. There is even an argument that the crash may have helped the national team by forcing clubs to rely on cheap young talent instead of expensive foreign signings." In Episode Seventy Six of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "Where Now For Iceland?" by Paul Brown, originally published in Issue Twenty Two in September 2016. The feelgood story of an otherwise somewhat stilted Euro 2016, will the small island nation be able to capitalise on their success and head to Russia 2018, and tournaments beyond? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty Two, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Only a month before the 8-1 defeat in Amsterdam, the government had announced its plan to host European Championship games in 2020... News of the grand seven-year plan was all over the state media for days. As in the Communist era, irreverent political jokes abounded: what’s the difference between Orbán and Platini? One’s an autocratic, ageing, overweight midfielder and the other one was European Footballer of the Year in 1984. "In truth, Orbán’s political destiny has been linked to football from the start. Some of the most powerful members of his government including the president and leader of the House — played in the same five-a-side team as the prime minister in the late 1980s." In Episode Seventy Five of the Blizzard Podcast we look back to 'Orbán Planning' by Dan Nolan, originally published in Issue Fourteen in September 2014. In the piece, he looks at the divisive Hungarian leader's relationship with football, which led to his government spending vast sums on stadium expansion while a significant proportion of his population lives in poverty. How can he explain the Ferenc Puskas Academy and its 3,500 seater stadium only 20m from his back-door in the small village of Felcsút? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Fourteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"At that point the Italian Marco Barlotta, 42, was named as the oldest player still in action. Robert had already turned 48 at that point. Determined to see his own name among the world’s tallest and shortest men, the biggest omelette and the longest beard, he requested his registration from the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF)and began the quest to gain recognition as the sport’s eldest of elder statesmen." In episode Seventy Four of the Blizzard Podcast we look back to Dan Edwards' 'Senior Citizen' from Issue Twenty, first published in March 2016, which details the remarkable life and career of a world record setting Uruguayan player. From early beginnings in Montevideo to a 12 year semi-professional career in the United States, joining his original club 40 years after making his debut to a failed rabona in front of Diego Maradona, Robert Carmona's is a career well lived. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"But while club identity clings on bravely in this fast-shifting world, rooted in local history and socio-politics as much as what’s happened on the pitch, team identity is at worst a myth; at best a luxury." In episode Seventy Three we look at "Identity Crisis" by Gary Hartley, from the upcoming Issue Twenty Four. For the fans of consistently competent teams that never win anything, perhaps aspiring to an enduring identity becomes unrealistically important. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty Four, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. Issue Twenty Four will be released on Monday 13th March. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"There is a need, now more than ever, for a sense of responsibility. that’s true for readers and commenters, but it’s especially true for writers and editors. It matters less in football coverage than elsewhere, but standards are important whatever the field. Truth has never been a virtue in such need of being upheld." In episode Seventy Two of the Blizzard Podcast we look ahead to the upcoming Issue Twenty Four, and whet your appetite for it with Jonathan Wilson's editorial, 'A Sense of Responsibility'. In what he describes as the 'most political issue we've done', he looks at the role of the media in the current climate of post-truth, lying politicians and a mendacious media. "Perhaps it’s slightly ridiculous to be addressing such grand themes in a football magazine, but [this issue] is political in a direct sense in the discussions of the aftermath of the Gabonese elections, the rise of Asia and Yorkshire’s leaning towards Brexit, but also more indirectly, in David Stubbs’s ambivalent nostalgia for the calm of 1996 and a number of pieces that variously address issues of identity. That was not a conscious plan, but that it has turned out like this probably says something about the age in which we live." Issue Twenty Four is available to pre-order now from www.theblizzard.co.uk. It will be available to subscribers from 6th March, and will go on general pay-what-you-like download sale from 13th March.
"South Bank lies three miles east of Middlesbrough. Locally they call it Slaggy Island in honour of the ring of spoil heaps that once cut it off from the outside world. It’s not as glamorous as that nickname makes it sound. South Bank was the home of the Smith’s Dock shipyard, of Bolckow Vaughan and Dorman Long steelworks, clusters of iron foundries, warrens of brickyards. Blast furnaces, smelters, rolling mills and fabrication sheds converted ore to pig iron, iron to steel. They shaped it, cut it and shipped it out. Through most of the 20th century Slaggy Islanders lived their lives under a cloud of bitter smog. You had to catch a bus to see the sun." In episode Seventy One we revisit "Slaggy Island" by Harry Pearson, first published in Issue Nineteen in December 2015. In it he waxes lyrical on the neighbourhood of South Bank in Middlesbrough, which has produced no fewer than 100 professional players from its working class ranks. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"I think I was looking for something to replace the adrenaline rush, the buzz you get, that feeling of really being alive. You get used to performing in front of thousands every week and when that’s gone then suddenly there’s a huge mental void which becomes almost impossible to fill. At least for me. I just sat at home or did what I wanted to do, go on holiday, whatever. It became a vicious circle for
me where there was more and more alcohol and I started trying this and that, and suddenly you’re in trouble." Episode Seventy of the Blizzard Podcast looks back at Lars Sivertsen's interview with Claus Lundekvam, 'The Centre-back and the Kitchen Knife' from Issue Five, first published in June 2012. In it, the former Southampton and Norway international details his struggle with drink and drugs upon his retirement from the game. Chasing the buzz of performing in front of thousands, and with ready access to booze and cocaine, his life spiralled out of control and he was on the verge of a one way trip to Rio to end his life. At his worst, he was fighting off the police and ambulance service, and hunting in his garden for imaginary paparazzi with a large kitchen knife; unscrewing the light bulbs in his house because he thought they were cameras. In a frank conversation, he goes into detail about his experiences as a Premier League player in the 90s and early part of the twenty-first century, and how he managed to regain his life after a visit to the Sporting Chance clinic. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Five, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"You are among the football hacks summoned to Downing Street by Margaret Thatcher. She has the eyes of a tawny owl and clearly terrifies her ministers, who dance attendance. She goes around the table, asking each visitor what they would do to solve football hooliganism. You might as well quote Afghani poetry, because her mind is made up before anyone opens their mouth. In her world, football fans are second-class citizens who have forfeited the right to trust and respect. They deserve to be caged, treated with contempt." In Episode Sixty Nine of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at ‘But You Can’t Change…’ by Mike Calvin, first published in Issue Eight in March 2013. In it, he writes back to his teenaged self, setting out the life that would become his. From his early roots as a ballboy at Watford to meeting the Prime Minister, and ultimately committing the cardinal football fan sin of changing his allegiances, Calvin looks at a boy’s world through a man’s eyes, and passes on some of life’s lessons. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eight, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Back home, the locals closed up their shops and descended upon those neighbours who were fortunate enough to own colour televisions. Local boys, accompanied by a dog with a rosette pinned to its collar, had a kickabout in a side street within a few yards of Roker Park and large groups began clustering around Vision Hire on Fawcett Street for an impromptu street party. When the game kicked off at 3.00pm, the town was deserted but for a solitary policeman trudging a lonely beat. " In Episode Sixty Eight of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit 'Meanwhile Back in Sunderland' by John Spurling, first published in Issue Nine in June 2013. In the article, he examines the Tyne Tees TV documentary shot in the city on the day of the Black Cats' Wembley triumph, which serves not only as a reminder of the club's great day out but a valuable piece of history on 70s Britain. The documentary, as mentioned in the episode, is available on YouTube - http://bit.ly/2jxpwOf. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Nine, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"JOHN TERRY (Updated, 2012 edition) Refer to his “strong personality” and “bravery”. LA MASIA The incubator of Spain’s golden age. Point out that it means “the farmhouse”. LEADS 2-0 is the most dangerous. LEFT FOOT The only human extremity capable of becoming "cultured”. LITERALLY Figuratively." Thanks to Brian Phillips and Episode Sixty Seven of the Blizzard Podcast, you too can learn to speak like a pundit. In the 'Dictionary of Received Ideas', first published in Issue Seven in December 2012, he brings to life the meaning behind the words uttered by our favourite TV and radio-based talking heads. After years of study "mostly conducted from a crouching position behind the rearmost seat of Mark Lawrenson’s Nissan Qashqai", we bring you the first definitive manual on how to think like a pundit. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Seven, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"But what if football rethought its relationship with TV? What if you could come up with a plan that would, at once, revitalise local support, help smaller clubs market themselves better, boost attendances and, yes, increase the size of the pie for everyone? In Episode Sixty Six of the Blizzard Podcast, we revisit Gabriele Marcotti's thought experiment 'Care for the Community' from Issue Six, first published in September 2013. In it, he posits that for the betterment of the game throughout the UK a radical rejig of football's relationship with TV is needed. Through regionalising broadcasts, reducing the number of Premier League games on national TV and ensuring that clubs only get to appear on TV, and thus benefit from the money that comes with, by selling out their stadiums, Gab's proposal would provide a shot in the arm for clubs throughout the country. To do it, though, we have to throw out a few ideas that the game considers 'sacrosanct', and it would take a leap of imagination (as well as some negotiation). Let's see if you agree with him. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Six, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"We tend to trace the route of a goal back to the opening of the move – or at most, the breakdown of the previous one – when in truth its foundations stretch back to kick-off and the first decisions made by every player on the pitch. The reason Götze scored that goal was no more because of Schürrle’s trickery or Götze’s skill, as it was an Argentinian player’s decision to make a back-pass rather than a clearance in the second minute." Episode Sixty Five of the Blizzard Podcast looks back at ‘Chaos Theory’ by Alex Keble, first published in Issue Nineteen in December 2015. An article which poses many questions, not least whether there’s any point in analysing football from a journalistic or coaching perspective if chaos theory truly applies to matches, it looks at the deterministic nature of the choices we make. Touching on the illusion (or otherwise) of free will, Alex asks whether any of that matters if we simply consider the artistry and beauty of the game itself. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Yet there is maybe another reason that Wenger’s own cinematic narrative increasingly resembles a hubristic Greek tragedy rather than a story of redemption. Just as Sonny Corleone’s death scene in The Godfather no longer shocks, the methods which gave Wenger such an edge in the mid-90s are no longer so unique. Every team now applies science to their preparation; many others possess youth systems as productive. And while it’s open to debate whether more teams play better football than Arsenal, the likes of Barcelona have complemented it with a new level of craft." In Episode Sixty Four of the Blizzard Podcast, we look back on Wenger, l’Auteur by Miguel Delaney, first published in Issue Two in September 2011 (as a listener’s choice - @ArsenalWay_ on Twitter, if you’re asking. And yes, we get the last episode number wrong at the beginning, too; it’s been a busy week at Blizzard HQ and we’re very tired.) In it, Miguel looks at what Arsene Wenger might learn from the Hollywood directors’ school of the 1970s – if he had any interests outside football, that is. Have Wenger’s initial successes at Highbury led to him becoming over-indulged at the Emirates in much the same was Michael Cimino and Francis Ford Coppola were by the studios in Hollywood after their early Oscar-winners? Has he failed to learn the lessons of adapting his original ‘Invincibles’ squad, rather than pursuing idealistic perfection? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Two, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"That is what has been lost: identity. Individuality, tradition, difference: all of the things that once made football such a gloriously varied menagerie. Football is a homogenous game now. Everywhere you look, it looks the same. Gone are the days when Dinamo Tbilisi might be the best side Liverpool face on the way to a European Cup final.” In Episode Sixty Three we revisit ‘The Death of Mystery’ by Rory Smith, first published in Issue Ten back in 2013. In it, he looks at the globalisation (and homogenisation) of the game, and how the excitement from the unknown is being lost. Pockets still remain, in Africa and Mexico, but by and large the game is coming together and we’re all playing the same way. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Ten, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Created in the early 1960s by the then Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams and the cartoonist Barry Fantoni and cheered on by Peter Cook (who funded the satirical magazine in its early days and wrote editorials as elusive proprietor Lord Gnome), Knee exemplified the Eye’s eccentric, idiosyncratic view of British sport. " In Episode Sixty Two we feature 'Decline and Fall' by Paul Simpson, which charts the sad demise of one of Britain's premier non-existent managers - Neasden Town/Private Eye's Ron Knee. A device with which to lampoon the ludicrous goings-on on the nation's back pages, Knee and his cast of supporting characters (Doris Bonkers, Baldy Pevsner et al) took on a life of their own as the plucky underdogs crashed from one dispiriting defeat to the next. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"There was a time when loudmouth megalomaniacs of questionable political beliefs were football managers and quietly eloquent, slightly bland men who avoided giving offence were politicians. With Gareth Southgate, at the time of writing, seemingly about to be appointed England manager and Donald Trump president-elect of the USA, it's hard not to think that at some point we got that a the wrong way round." Episode Sixty One of the Blizzard podcast features Jonathan Wilson’s editorial from the soon to be released Issue Twenty Three (available to subscribers from 5th December and on general pay-what-you-like download sale from 12th December). In it, he discusses the poppy farrago, the subverting of the usual world order and the death of the liberal consensus. We also take this opportunity to remind you that in order to support the podcast you can recommend us to a friend, leave us a rating on iTunes, or perhaps add us to your letter to Santa. Gift subscriptions and individual print editions make wonderful Christmas presents, so get hinting to your loved ones that you’d like a particular kind of white Christmas this year… If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Out of seeming nothing;
Out of shadow and gloom;
Out of a hollowed vacuum
Came something to keep us in tune.
Something to interest and please us;
Something we call our own;
Something we almost worship;
Loving beyond control.
Boys by practice and training;
Diligently keeping fit;
Men by planning and scheming
Built it bit by bit.
Loyally working together;
Faithful to their scheme;
Out of little or nothing
Came the champion Celtic team.” In Episode Sixty of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit ‘Before the Shopping Centre’ by Conor Heffernan from Issue Seventeen, first published in June 2015. Founded in 1891, at a time of political upheaval in both the North and South of Ireland, Belfast Celtic, the ‘Grand Old Team’, were far more than a football club for the people of the Falls Road. Ultimately, though, the sectarianism that they tried to combat by bringing together both Protestants and Catholics was their ultimate undoing. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Seventeen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“In the place of the regular pressure to perform is the more diffuse but arguably more terrifying prospect of having to come on, at a moment’s notice, with the certain knowledge that your teammates, your manager and your fans are all thinking, “Oh, no.”" In Episode Fifty Nine of the Blizzard Podcast we look back on 'The Waiting Game' by Andi Thomas from Issue Eleven, first published back in December 2013. Goalkeepers have always been taken to be a funny breed, yet the dedicated back-up (your Mike Pollitts, your Pegguy Arphexads, your Stuart Taylors) are something else entirely. What motivates a footballer to spend so much of their footballing career not actually being a footballer? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eleven, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“It was a relief to see the team sheet and to find out that Beardsley was not there,” said Lenny Lawrence, the Charlton manager, “Instead they started with somebody we didn’t know. The relief turned very quickly into sheer horror. They set Ronnie on us and he tormented us that day.” In Episode Fifty Eight of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit 'Accidental Hero' by Shaul Adar from Issue Eighteen, first published back in September 2015. In it, he looks at one of the unsung heroes from Liverpool's last title winning side of 1989-90: supersub Ronnie Rosenthal. Signed on loan until the end of the season to provide a spark to a Liverpool side who were flagging under the weight of the number of games they were playing, as well as the psychological trauma of dealing with the Hillsborough tragedy, the Israeli provided a much needed injection of pace and aggression up front, and contributed with some key goals and assists to help Liverpool lift their 18th and most recent league title. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eighteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"In the past, the football of results tended to refer to a physical or cynical style but the recent success of Spain awoke a new realisation: technically excellent football could be dull. In decades to come, as the specifics of their triumphs fade into the yellowed pages of history, how will Spain’s era of tiki-taka dominance be remembered?" In Episode Fifty Seven we bring you 'Hearts and Minds' by Greg Johnson, first published in Issue Thirteen ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Drawing parallels between Spain's somewhat sterile dominance of major tournaments around the turn of the first decade of the 21st century with Lennox Lewis's spell at the top of heavyweight boxing's tree, he asks whether Vicente del Bosque's all-conquering side, like Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, run the risk of going down in history as unloved champions. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Thirteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Hysen, Careca, Southall, Van Basten, Lentini... Even football’s most diligent historians might find it difficult to fathom how these 13 seconds of action were possible. How were these players on the same pitch at the same time? "This was no charity match, nor a friendly played for dubious benefits in a country with a questionable human rights record." In Episode Fifty Six we revisit 'Serie A v The Football League' by Tom Collomosse, originally published in Issue Twenty in March 2016. He looks back to the days when leagues would field genuinely competitive sides against each other in representative fixtures, and asks whether the process ought not be reinstated to settle the tedious 'Premier League v La Liga' arguments. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"São Tomé eventually lost their Fifa vote and were dropped from the rankings... signs of international activity remain an apparition as Brazilian journalist Rafael Maranhão found on visiting São Tomé. Few journalists make the lengthy trip. Surprised at this interloper, the new FSF board told Maranhão that a friendly with Equatorial Guinea was scheduled for July 2011. That was a surprise to the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation, who knew nothing about a fixture that never took place." In Episode Fifty Five we look back to the halycon days of Fifa corruption in the early part of the decade, with Steve Menary's 'What's a Vote Worth?' from Issue Three, first published in December 2011. While Mohammed bin Hamman was eventually banned from Fifa for attempting to bribe the Caribbean Football Union with $40,000 for his vote to oust Sepp Blatter, the article focuses on the minor nations who have benefitted from Fifa's Goal and Financial Assistance Programmes. Even at the bottom of the rankings, these funds are the source of much debate, with many nations simply pocketing the cheques and doing the bare minimum in terms of competition to retain their place within Fifa. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Had Scotland contrived to bring home the World Cup, then perhaps the nationalist cause would have gathered even greater momentum. As it was, enthusiasm melted away like snow in the summer sunshine. When the government held a referendum on Scottish devolution the following March, only one in three people voted for it." In Episode Fifty Four we look back at "My Name is Ally MacLeod and I am a Winner" by Dominic Sandbrook, first published in Issue Five in June 2012. It looks back on the summer of 1978, the feverish anticipation of the Scottish squad as genuine contenders at the Argentina World Cup, and the ensuing debacle on the pitch, through the hubris of the Caledonian Clough, Ally MacLeod. Did the result help derail the course of Scottish nationalism? Could a different result on the pitch have changed the course of the referendum the following year? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Five, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Towards the end of the game I began to wonder how many of the devoted fans we had met would be able to name the Earthquake’s starting XI. At times the Ultras reminded me of Orsino from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, more in love with the idea of being in love than with the object of his desire." In Episode Fifty Three we look at "Do You Know The Way?" by Sam Wetherell, published in the newly-released Issue Twenty Two in September 2016. In the article he witnesses first hand the behaviours of arguably the most passionate set of MLS fans in North American - the San Jose Ultras - while also musing on the differences in supporter culture between the US and UK/Europe, and the growth of ultra culture in American soccer. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty Two, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the National Football Museum as part of the Manchester Football Writing Festival on Thursday 1st September. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Philippe Auclair, hosted by Rory Smith. The panel took questions from the audience and Twitter on a range of subjects across two halves of chat including thoughts on the transfer window, doping in football, the homogeneity of goalnets and massive journalistic clangers that they'd dropped. Apologies for the poor sound quality - we were unable to take a direct feed from the microphones and so had to bodge a compromise, and would rather bring you some audio than none at all. Part two is better - honest. Don’t forget that Issue Twenty Two of the Blizzard is available now to subscribers, and will be released on a general pay-what-you-like download basis on 12th September. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The first half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the National Football Museum as part of the Manchester Football Writing Festival on Thursday 1st September. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Philippe Auclair, hosted by Rory Smith. The panel took questions from the audience and Twitter on a range of subjects across two halves of chat including thoughts on the transfer window, doping in football, the homogeneity of goalnets and massive journalistic clangers that they'd dropped. Apologies for the poor sound quality - we were unable to take a direct feed from the microphones and so had to bodge a compromise, and would rather bring you some audio than none at all. Part two is better - honest. Don’t forget that Issue Twenty Two of the Blizzard is available now to subscribers, and will be released on a general pay-what-you-like download basis on 12th September. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Every year, it feels, [the European Super League] comes closer. If access to it starts to be determined on such criteria as “historical merit”, it becomes a de facto franchise system and the beautiful sense of organic growth and one enormous interconnected pyramid that has sustained European football for so long will be lost." In a short Episode 51 we bring you the Editor's Note from the upcoming Issue Twenty Two. Later this week we hope (technological incompetence not withstanding) to bring you a full episode of audio from our Q&A event at the Manchester Football Writing Festival, where a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Rory Smith, Philippe Auclair and Jack Pitt-Brooke will be answering your questions on a range of footballing topics. Issue Twenty Two is available to pre-order now from www.theblizzard.co.uk, and is released on 5th September (12th September on general, pay-what-you-like download sale).
"At St Pauli, they refrain from playing music or advertisements during this quarter of an hour so that the fans can sing their songs undisturbed. Songs such as “No one wins at the Millerntor,” meaning that even if the visiting team should happen to score more goals than the home side, FC St Pauli will never be defeated, can never be destroyed." To mark our fiftieth episode, we offered up the chance for our listeners to choose an article. One of the most requested pieces, including the lucky winner James O'Donovan on Facebook, was Uli Hesse's 'The Conversion of St Pauli?' from our pilot issue, Issue Zero. Europe's (the world's?) most noted counter-cultural club, deeply anti-racist and anti-violent, the story of St Pauli is down to much more than punk football and the skull and crossbones. They've come back from the brink of bankruptcy on at least two occasions, and Uli talks about the meaning of St Pauli, the district as well as the club, with some of the key figures from its past and present. Head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events for news of our next Q&A - at the Manchester Football Writing Festival on 1st September. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Zero. like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a limited edition print version is available for £12 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"The stairwell where they were crushed looks horrifi cally tiny. The gates that had eventually sheered away from their concrete pillars still lay discarded on the floor 12 months on. It looked as if it had happened yesterday. I take some pictures but I’m chased out of the stadium by a security guard shouting that I am an Israeli spy." In Episode Forty Nine we look back at "In Memoriam" by James Montague, first published in Issue Eleven in December 2013. Set against the backdrop of the Egpytian revolution, 72 Al Ahly fans were murdered in the Port Said stadium disaster, causing the suspension of the league and a long campaign for justice, all the while Al Ahly tried to win the African Champions League to honour their fallen fans. Head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events for news of our next Q&A - at the Manchester Football Writing Festival. Also note - next week's Episode Fifty is a 'listener's choice' - email, tweet or Facebook us your suggestions for an article you'd like to appear on the podcast. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eleven, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"True to type, France’s 1978 World Cup campaign was a shambles. The tone was set before the actual tournament by a tragicomic episode which must rank among the most bizarre in the history of the competition. On the morning of May 23, driving with his wife to Bordeaux, 24 hours before his team was scheduled to leave France on a Concorde flight, Michel Hidalgo was the victim of a kidnapping attempt." In Episode Forty Eight we return to ‘La Renaissance' by Philippe Auclair, first published in Issue Fourteen in September 2014. We spoke to Philippe ahead of our Q&A in Dublin's Sugar Club back in March to get a more rounded view of the article (apologies for the noisy hotel bar) as he fills us in on an extraordinary period in Les Bleus' history - from the appointment of an unheralded manager via a botched, politically motivated kidnapping on the eve of the tournament through the farce of playing Hungary in a borrowed under-19s kit. And yet it was the jumping-off point for a renaissance in French football, as the great generation of Platini, Six, Rocheteau, Tresor et al came together to discover the French style, and gain the vital tournament experience that would stand them in good stead to win the home Euros only a few years later. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Fourteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis fromwww.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"[The BBC's] first adventure into live football came on 16 September 1937 when the London service from Alexandra Palace, transmitting to nearly 100 viewers in the Muswell Hill area, ran the following packed schedule: 3pm Fancy That!; 3.30pm British Movietone News; 3.40pm Football at the Arsenal; 3.55pm Cartoon; 4pm Close. Obviously what everyone really wants to know is exactly what the hell sort of programme Fancy That! was. But we’ll concentrate on the football, a 15-minute live display of training at Arsenal. Hmm." In Episode Forty Seven we look back to ‘The Man Who Ate His Hat' by Scott Murray, first published in Issue Two in September 2011, which charts the first football commentary cock-up in only the second live broadcast of the game in the UK. Lieutenant Commander Tommy Woodroofe was the 1930's answer to Dimbleby and Barry Davies rolled in to one, at ease commentating on state occasions and all manner of sports. But one day's drinking ahead of a naval regatta, and an ill-advised promise during the 1938 FA Cup final offer a great insight into the character one of the most recongnisable voices in pre-war Britain. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Two, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis fromwww.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Europe seemed much bigger in the early 1970s. Iberia was governed by fascist dictators. There were two Germanys, West and East. With no rolling news, Blackberries nor Twitter, a plausible sit-com episode could be written based on the Likely Lads avoiding knowledge of the result of an England match for half a day. Europe’s airlines were almost exclusively national carriers. Countries had unique coins and banknotes. Speedy boarding was an oxymoron, speedy disembarkation even more so; you needed visas to cross most borders.” In Episode Forty Six we look back at ‘Why the Away Goals Rule Must Be Abolished’ by Ian Hawkey, first published in our pilot edition Issue Zero in March 2011. He looks at the ‘historical anachronism’ that was originally brought in to encourage attacking play away from home, but thanks to the changes in the modern game now has the effect of encouraging defensive performances from home sides. Arsene Wenger and Jorge Valdano, among others, agree with Ian, as he explores the changes in the modern landscape (travel, the fall of the iron curtain, tactical shifts) that have seen the number of away wins in Europe’s top competition double in little over 3 decades. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Zero, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis fromwww.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a limited edition print version is available from £12 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“We were sorry to hear the offensive shouts of one ‘Mackintoshed stranger’, which, however, were almost entirely drowned out by the universal supporters of the Druryites.” In Episode Forty Five we revisit Paul Brown’s ‘The Birth of the Fan’ from Issue Thirteen, which looks back at historical sources to review the birth of football fandom itself. While our modern proclivities have been passed down from father or grandfather, there was a time when no such familial link existed. From the early 'mob' games between local villages, through the founding of the first works’ teams and the formation of professional football, the role played by the supporter changed as rapidly as the game itself. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Thirteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis fromwww.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Well, I can say hand on heart that I went for the ball — it’s just that I caught him with my elbow. And what made it worse is that his actual tooth stuck in my elbow. I wouldn’t mind but it was a big one, like a fuckin’ horse’s tooth. I suppose that if that happened in the Premier League now, they’d have a fuckin’ field day over it — the fuckin’ cameras would be right on top of it.” In Episode Forty Four we look back at 'The Kennedy Conundrum' by Paul Doyle from Issue Three, telling the undocumented side of an unheralded international tournament win for the Republic of Ireland, and the reasons behind Mick Kennedy's sparingly short international career. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"And so, when all’s said and done, what does it matter? That there’s a yawning, unbridgeable chasm between the internationalism and diversity of cities like Geneva and Basel and the conservative politics of the Swiss rural heartlands? Between the hero-worship of Muslim footballers and a national ban on minarets? Between footballing icons like Xhaka, Shaqiri and Behrami and the fledgling Kosovo side that might yet reclaim them? Between the distaste for ‘Yugos’ and a World Cup forward roster of men named Drmić, Seferović and Gavranović? Between the intractable fact that immigration in Switzerland has facilitated mass over-achievement, from finance to football, and the reality that much of the population is now supportive of bolting the doors?" In Episode Forty Three we revisit 'The Multi-Kulti Question' by Mike Phillips, which looks at the unique make-up of the Swiss national team and its multicultural nature, featuring players of Yugoslavian and Kosovan origin - some Swiss-born, some naturalised immigrants. Against the backdrop of both their progression to the last 16 of Euro 2016 and the EU referendum in the UK, it's apposite to look back at the referendum in Switzerland in 2014 aimed at limiting EU migration, the debate it caused and the potential knock-on effects on the make-up of the Swiss national team. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Thirteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"If Euro 2012 seemed unusually vibrant it was in part because of those echoes, the resonance of a million instant verbal salutes, a million demands for a retweet for this fascinating piece on the Czech Republic’s mildly innovative use of the attacking long throw-in." In Episode Forty Two we look back to 'The First Twitter Tournament' by Barney Ronay from Issue Six, which explores the changes in the press and the impact of social media on the 'most tweeted sporting event of all time'. The relationship between reporter and spectator has been fundamentally altered, and the 'access' that was once the preserve of pork-pie-hatted men with notebooks is now democratised and available to all. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Six, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Perhaps the death of optimism is just what happens when you reach middle age, that you recognise how cruel and capricious the world can be, how the brightest dreams are sullied and perverted, and so cynicism becomes the natural mode. But in the summer of 1996, it felt like everything was moving in the right direction. Perhaps every generation goes through this, but looking back, two decades on, it’s hard to escape the thought that we blew it." Episode 41 of the Blizzard Podcast features 'The Best Summer of My Life', Jonathan Wilson's editorial from Issue Twenty One which is available to subscribers now and goes on general sale from the 10th June. Something of a Euros special, the issue features articles on Pavel Vrba, Leonid Slutsky, André-Pierre Gignac, the Albania-Serbia drone controversy, as well as looking back to games at Euro 84, Euro 76 and a photo essay on the great Hungarian sides of the 50s. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty One, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“There was no fooling the 18,000 spectators at Old Trafford. “Play up, you rotters!” they screamed. The fix was on. They knew it, as Manchester United went through the motions against Liverpool on 2 April 1915, winning 2-0 in a listless performance.” In Episode Forty we revisit ‘The Silenced Crowd’ by Richard Fitzpatrick from Issue Ten, which looks at the greatest scandal in British football in the first half of the twentieth century, as a group of players from two of the country’s greatest sides colluded to fix a match. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Ten, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the WS Society in Edinburgh on 19th May. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair, Alan Pattullo and Kevin McCarra, hosted by Daniel Gray. The panel took questions from the audience and Twitter on a range of subjects including unintelligent footballers, the upcoming European Championships, safestanding and other Scottish football chat, the best goals they’d ever seen scored live and the Chablis in the Auxerre press room. Don’t forget that Issue Twenty One of the Blizzard – something of a Euros special – is available to pre-order now and will be released on 7th June to subscribers, and on a general pay-what-you-like download basis on 10th June to coincide with the start of the tournament. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The first half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the WS Society in Edinburgh on 19th May. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair, Alan Pattullo and Kevin McCarra, hosted by Daniel Gray. The panel took questions from the audience and Twitter on a range of subjects including unintelligent footballers, the upcoming European Championships, safestanding and other Scottish football chat, the best goals they’d ever seen scored live and the Chablis in the Auxerre press room. Don’t forget that Issue Twenty One of the Blizzard – something of a Euros special – is available to pre-order now and will be released on 7th June to subscribers, and on a general pay-what-you-like download basis on 10th June to coincide with the start of the tournament. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Perhaps, in this age of quasi-franchises and superclubs, when the structure of the competitions and the nature of globalisation makes the rich richer so they exist at an impossible remove to the rest, this is all that remains of the traditional mode of support: football not as an expression of provincial industrial pride, but as a reminder of it.” In Episode Thirty Eight we look back to ‘A Sentimental Journey’ by Jonathan Wilson, including a chat with the man himself to put the article in a bit more context. In a world of superclubs, just what is the point of ordinary teams? Is the nature of David overcoming Goliath the only ‘true’ version of success, and can clubs who habitually inhabit the latter stages of the Champions League truly celebrate achievement that doesn’t act as consecration of a lifelong quest, but merely represents the fact that it was ‘their turn’ to win? There's still time for you to win a signed Sergio Aguero Manchester City home shirt, too - for full details head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts - but be quick, the competition closes on Friday 13th May. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Fifteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"The image of reinvention, conjuring up some kind of Google-land, can also, while understandably wanting to attract businesses, veer into overstating the case. If this had happened so successfully, this “remarkable economic transformation”; including the outlay of public money to create “sport city”, then hitting the jackpot with Abu Dhabi, why are the areas right around the stadium still mired in England’s worst deprivation?" In Episode Thirty Seven we revisit ‘City and the City’ by David Conn. Looking at the takeover of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour (and at its previous owner, Thaksin Shinawatra), David places the mega-rich gulf owners' stewardship of the club in the wider economic landscape. What does their ownership of the club mean for the city itself? Why is there still a juxtaposition of investment in sporting facilities in the east of the city while it's still home to some of the most deprived boroughs in the UK?
There's also an opportunity for you to win a signed Sergio Aguero Manchester City home shirt - for full details listen to the episode, or head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/podcasts
If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Nine, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“The nickname denoted a certain time in technology. Perhaps today he would have been ‘the Twitter scorer’ or ‘the Instagram attacker’. In the days before social media, Roy Essandoh was ‘the Teletext striker’, the man who went down in football folklore for being signed because of an article that appeared in blockish type on television screens and who scored an injury-time winner for the lower-league underdogs in an FA Cup quarter-final.” In Episode Thirty Six we look back to ‘One Hit Wonders’ by Richard Jolly, our Eight Bells feature from Issue Nineteen. Some players flicker brightly and briefly in the footballing consciousness, and from Jimmy Glass to Roy Dwight, Steve Morrow to Roy Essandoh, we feature some of the players whose names have gone down in history, albeit not with the longest of entries in the footballing Who’s Who.
If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Just as a newly-formed political party would be best off finding the point on the ideological spectrum where it can find the biggest ‘space’ (assuming this party has absolutely no ideological principles and is solely concerned with the pursuit of power), an intelligent playmaker given a free role will venture to the position on the pitch where he can find the most space.” In Episode Thirty Five we look back on ‘The Search for Space’ by Michael Cox, from way back in our pilot issue, Issue Zero, in March 2011. He looks at how a theory of political polling reflects something similar in football tactics. As New Labour were exploiting the ‘median voter theory’ in the mid-to-late 1990s, a number of Premier League imports – Bergkamp, Zola and Cantona – were exploiting spatial theories on the pitch. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Zero, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a limited edition print version is available from £12 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"When Ferguson moved into management in 1974, part-time at East Stirlingshire for £40 a week, the game was much less lucrative, broadcasters usually only supplied football punditry for special events (FA Cup finals, internationals, World Cups and so forth) and the principal career options for retiring footballers were: opening a sports shop, running a pub and becoming a manager" In Episode Thirty Four we revisit ‘Echoes in Eternity’ by Paul Simpson from Issue Sixteen, which attempts to answer the question of which manager has had the greatest influence on future generations. Ferguson’s ‘enfants’ span Europe (Blanc at PSG, Solksjaer at Molde, Berg at Legia Warsaw), and closer to home his players have managed, assisted or trained at just over 50 clubs. Is he the most influential manager of all time, however? What about Revie, Clough, Shankly or Paisley? From overseas, where do Bielsa, Sacchi and Cruyff fit in? And why does ‘the Professor’ Wenger have such a comparatively low hit-rate? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Sixteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"By the ashtray lay a single sheet of paper and an unopened bottle of Scotch. Joao Rocha turning to his interlocutor without as much as a smile, said 'I'm afraid it's one or the other, Malcolm'. His time leading Portugal's famous green and white hoops, brief and glamourously successful, was over in one simple, dramatic Dartford Gunslinger moment." In episode Thirty Three we look back to 'The Whisky Option' by Simon Curtis from Issue Seventeen, which details the often unmentioned Portuguese successes of the larger-than-life boss Malcolm Allison. His brief and successful stay at Sporting, and subsequent mixed spells at Vitoria de Setubal and Farense mirrors the domestic career of one of football's great coaching innovators, and his legacy lasts to this day thanks to the impact he made on the son of Vitoria's goalkeeping coach. Simon Curtis is a freelance football writer based in Lisbon. He contributes regularly to ESPN and Champions, and has written for FourFourTwo, Reuters, Worldsoccer.com, Portugoal.net and a variety of official Uefa publications. He is currently co-writing a book on the history and influence of Portuguese football. Twitter: @Bifana_bifana If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Seventeen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"There are pictures of the weeping comeback captain and Divine Ponytail consoling each other while Brazilian players dance in the background. No one did more on the pitch to drag Italy to the final than Baggio. No one did more off the pitch than Baresi." In Episode Thirty Two we look at 'In Appreciation of Franco Baresi' by Sheridan Bird, first published in Issue Eight in 2013. The article touches on the Italian captain's unusual journey to the finals - from his orphaned upbringing and rejection by Inter, through to an abortive international retirement - and his remarkable recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery to play the full 120 minutes in the blazing Pasadena Rosebowl sunshine. Sheridan Bird writes for Champions, World Soccer, Creative Review, Sporting iD, FourFourTwo and the Manchester United and England match programmes. He has written for Gazzetta della Sport online and appeared on Italian state radio RAI 1 during Euro 2012. Twitter: @SheridanBird If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eight, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"There's something spectacularly silly about fans policing other fans for their adherence to the laws of fandom, as if not having one favourite club or preferring to watch from a seated position, is a VERY SERIOUS INFRACTION that should be SWIFTLY AND MERCILESSLY DEALT WITH. Because, you know, the economic recovery can't gather steam if Kyle in Ohio thinks it's fun to watch Chelsea on television." In Episode Thirty One we look at Brian Phillips's 'The Real Problem' from Issue Five, which tackles the thorny subject of 'the real fan'. Aren't they just a rhetorical device deployed by someone to strengthen their particular argument? The culture of sport is changing, and with it the way we access and support our favourite sides. Is there such a thing as a 'real fan' anymore? Brian Phillips was a staff writer for Grantland and the editor of the football blog The Run of Play. His writing has appeared in Slate, Deadspin, Poetry, and The Hudson Review, among other publications. Twitter: @runofplay If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Five, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“What is noticeable, immediately, is how little everyone is paying attention. They talk among themselves, rarely about the football, or they look at their phones. Midway through the first half, on the big screen behind the goal at the south end, there is an advertisement, broadcast over the PA system, for a lease-to-own furniture retailer. It is hard to decide what is more troubling: the advert itself or the fact that such an unrecognisable brand was able to buy it.” In Episode Thirty, we look at Jake Walerius’s 'Fading Embers' from the recently released Issue Twenty. While the rest of MLS booming, what’s gone wrong for the Chicago Fire? Is it all down to meddling owner Andrew Hauptman? The article also assesses how the MLS boom plays into the cultural landscape of American sports in general. The overall success of the league will have much to do with how MLS confronts the tensions between a burgeoning family-led audience and the influence of global football culture and a more knowledgeable fanbase. Jake Walerius is a football writer based in Chicago. He writes a weekly column for the Sports Quotient and is working on a book about football culture in the US. Twitter: @JakeWalerius. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Twenty, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at Dublin's Sugar Club on 3rd March 2016. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and James Horncastle, hosted by Second Captains' Eoin McDevitt, the discussion centred around Euro 2016 and Qatar 2022, whether matches can change the course of human history, some chat about Klopp and Liverpool, Mourinho, timewasting, the panel's most memorable moments covering football and much more. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
The first half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at Dublin's Sugar Club on 3rd March 2016. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and James Horncastle, hosted by Second Captains' Eoin McDevitt, the discussion centred around this year's Premier League title race and Leicester's extraordinary performance, what's going on at Arsenal and who will replace Arsene Wenger, whether Antonio Conte will be a good fit at Chelsea, some chat about the Champions League and much more. We also have a brief chat with Jonathan Wilson about the newly released/soon to be released (delete according to your status as a subscriber) Issue Twenty, where he picks out some highlights including the days before Zenit had any money, a Moldovan photo essay, and our first crossword. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"A heavy cloud of tear gas hung over a Tahrir Square in revolt. Buckling under the pressure of thousands of protestors, the epicentre of the Egyptian revolution was unleashing a roar of resistance into the Cairo night. Against this backdrop of chaos and the sonic onslaught of revolution, one of my companions and I conducted a halting conversation about local football." In Episode Twenty Eight, we look back at David Lynch's 'Ultra Violence' from Issue Four. Ultras have put aside their differences and united for the greater good in Cairo, but to what extent are they generals or just foot soldiers of the revolution? After the horrors of the Port Said stadium disaster, in which 70 Al-Ahly fans died at the hands of Al-Masry fans (or instruments of the state - it's disputed), the role that the Cairene clubs' ultras played in the downfall of the Mubarak regime, and the 'second revolution' is much analysed. David Lynch is an award winning journalist and author currently based in Cairo. His second book is 'A Divided Paradise: An Irishman in the Holy Land' (New Island). www.davidlynchwriter.com
If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Four, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Italia 90 was indeed the greatest excuse ever to go drinking in the history of Ireland... There is hardly a man alive in Ireland who does not have some blissful memory of being terribly, terribly drunk during Italia 90." It would be tempting to add, that was just the squad. In Episode Twenty Seven of the Blizzard Podcast we look back to Dion Fanning's 'Booze Boys' from Issue Eleven, which looks at Ireland's 'complicated' relationship with alcohol - from the euphemistic 'Paul McGrath's knees' through to Giovanni Trapattoni bopping Andy Reid over the head with a copy of Gazzetto della Sport, via the meltdown in Saipan, Ireland and its footballers have a long relationship with the demon drink. Dion Fanning is the football correspondent of the Irish Sunday Independent. He was nominated as Irish Sports Columnist of the Year and Irish Sports Journalist of the Year in 2012 and 2013. He lives in London. For more information on our Q&A event in Dublin on 3rd March, mentioned at the beginning of the episode, featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and James Horncastle, head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events. Podcast listeners can save 10% on ticket prices by using the code 'blizzarddub' at the checkout. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eleven, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Anderson chased back, but Nicol dropped a shoulder as he entered the box from the side. Anderson skittered away on the seat of his pants, foot down as he drove the engine of the Puskas-Wright Fire Service. Nicol, now in space, 12 yards out, floated an exquisitely placed effort over Kelly. It was one of the great goals". In Episode Twenty Five we look back to Scott Murray's 'The Forgotten Full-Back', which examines how it was really Steve Nicol, and not John Barnes, Peter Beardsley or John Aldridge that was the key behind Liverpool's title-winning side of 1987-88. His fearless foraging from full-back (both left and right), and a number of early goals and outstanding performances, gave the new Liverpool side the momentum to sweep all before them and take their seventeenth title. Scott Murray writes for the Guardian. He is co-author of And Gazza Misses The Final, a history of the World Cup through the medium of minute-by-minute match reports. He also co-wrote The Anatomy of Liverpool and Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, the World's Worst Golfer. For more information on our Q&A event in Dublin on 3rd March, mentioned at the beginning of the episode, featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and James Horncastle, head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events. Podcast listeners can save 10% on ticket prices by using the code 'blizzarddub' at the checkout. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eighteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"When van Basten was visiting galeries, eating steamed vegetables and discussing the boundaries of freedom, Boydy was downing pints and going to grab-a-granny nights in clubs with two-for-one offers on blue Bacardi Breezers and fights in the car-park." In Episode Twenty Five we feature Harry Pearson's tale of Hartlepool United great Adam Boyd, 'The Van Basten of Hartlepool' from Issue Fifteen. Boyd, like all cult heroes, had his share of ups and downs at the north-east club as the local child prodigy-turned-disappointment-turned-redeemed hero. His role in Hartlepool's near promotion in the 2004/05 season is fondly remembered. For more information on our Q&A event in Dublin on 3rd March, mentioned at the beginning of the episode, featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and James Horncastle, head to www.theblizzard.co.uk/events. Podcast listeners can save 10% on ticket prices by using the code 'blizzarddub' at the checkout. Harry Pearson is the author of The Far Corner. His blog about north-east football, The First Thirty Years Are The Worst, is unaccountably popular in Switzerland. Twitter: @camsell59 If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Fifteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"South London, to fans who came to the game with the advent of the Premier League, probably seems rather similar to, say, East Anglia - not a hotbed, but with one or two clubs who occasionally spend a season or two among the elite before sinking back to their natural level." It was not always thus. In Episode Twenty Four we revisit Nick Szczepanik's 'South of the River' from Issue Four, published in 2012, which looks back to a time when South London's four clubs - Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace, Millwall and Wimbledon - were in rude footballing health as Crystal Palace's promotion in 1989 meant all four were in the top flight together for the first time. It's fair to say that the fortunes of two of the area's Championship clubs at the time of writing, Charlton and Crystal Palace, have somewhat diverged since. Nick Szczepanik is a freelance football writer contributing mainly to the Independent and Independent on Sunday after 15 years with the Times. Twitter: @NickSzczepanik. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Four, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Grant realised that nightmares had tortured his father every night... It had been going on for years. After hearing his father scream that night, Avram vowed that he would find out everything that had happened to his family - and find the lost graves of those relatives who were buried in far-off lands." In Episode Twenty Three we revisit Igor Rabiner's 'Closure' from Issue Eleven, the story of former Chelsea manager Avram Grant's emotional search for the graves of his ancestors, who died in a Russian gulag in the 1940's. A story of coincidences, aided by football, Grant visits distant, rural Russia where his father, the easy-tempered, lively, optimistic man had been forced to hand-dig the graves of his parents more than 60 years previously. Igor Rabiner is the author of 16 books including How Spartak Has Been Killed (in Russian), winner in the Sports Investigation category at Knizhnoe Obozrenie's Sports Book Awards. His latest is SEx in Sports, examining the ups and downs of Sport-Express and sports journalism in Russia. He has been Russian Football Journalist of the Year four times. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Eleven, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Two days later the Australians were back at the Cong Hoa Stadium to face the hosts South Vietnam. The atmosphere was tense, the pitch surrounded by barbed wire, army snipers and soldiers armed with fixed bayonets." In Episode Twenty Two we look back to Davidde Corran's 'Tour of Duty' which details the unlikeliest of football tours as the Australian national team were parachuted into Saigon at the height of the Vietnam war to take part in an 8-team friendly tournament. Still 7 years before they would first qualify for a World Cup, the Socceroos nonetheless lifted their first continental trophy under the most difficult of circumstances. Davidde Corran is an England-based Australian football journalist who works across TV, radio and print. Twitter: @DaviddeCorran If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“As a result of not smoking I’m now fitter and have more money. And that works just fine, until you see a picture of Berbatov or Özil or Socrates puffing away on a cigarette and looking like the coolest bastard in the world. Berbatov is not only cooler than me, but is also fitter and has more money. So what was the point of giving up?” In Episode Twenty One we feature ‘Literally on Fire’ by Jonathan Liew, looking at the complicated history of smoking and football. From collectable cigarette cards in the late 19th century to Dixie Dean and Stanley Matthews endorsing cigarette brands, to long-lens paparazzi snapping pictures of stars on holiday taking a puff on a cheeky fag, the relationship between sport and smoking has changed completely. Jonathan Liew writes about sport for the Daily Telegraph and is a former Young Sportswriter of the Year, as wistfully sepia-tinted as that sounds. Twitter: @jonathanliew If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Ten, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Little did people know that Cruyff's column would have a profound impact and lead to the so-called 'Velvet Revolution', which would soon become bloody. That it would lead to ugly court cases and yet another showdown between Cruyff and Van Gaal, forcing fans to pick either their mother or their father in a bitter divorce case". In episode Twenty we look back to Elko Born's 'The Velvet Revolution' from Issue Fourteen, which details the struggle for power at the top of Ajax, arguably for the soul of Dutch football itself, and the fallout from Cruyff and Van Gaal's, er, fallout. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Fourteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"They have been drawn in a difficult group, but hey, everyone has been drawn in a difficult group. With this foreign coach they will go far. He understands them. He is up-to-date with his practice and methodology. His parents know Africa. They were traders. Or missionaries. Or both." In episode Nineteen we look back to Luke Alfred's 'An African Parable' from Issue Zero, which contains no names or teams that you will recognise by their names or the colours of their shirts, but a story that you will know because it is so common as to be representative. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Issue Zero, like all issues of The Blizzard is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Both were scarred by defeat and disappointment, both were obsessed by the fear of failure; both distrusted the press and surrounded themselves with a small group of loyalists. They remained difficult men to love." In episode Eighteen we look back to Dominic Sandbrook's 'Revie-Nixon' from Issue One, in which he examines the parallels between the US politician and the England and Leeds United manager. From their upbringings to their carfeer trajectories, to the ultimate downfalls and ignominious exists that defined their careers, there's a lot more in common between the two men than you might think at first glance. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Dominic Sandbrook is a historian. His most recent book, Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979, accompanying his BBC2 documentary series on the 1970s, was published by Allen Lane. Twitter: @dcsandbrook Issue One, like all issues of The Blizzard is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"To pass is to relinquish control, to give up the certainty of the ball at your feet for the uncertain outcome. To pass is to anticipate and imagine a future, while to keep the ball and dribble is to stay in the moment for as long as possible." In Episode Seventeen we look back to 'Notes on Street Football' by Aleksandar Hemon, first published in Issue Ten in September 2013. What can kickabouts on street corners and parking lots reveal about the tortured artists of neo-romantic myth? Are the romantic street-artists on the wane in the age of globalised, professionalised, commercialised football? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Aleksandar Hemon is a Bosnian-American writer and novelist. His novel, The Lazarus Project, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Awards. His most recent book is a work of non-fiction, The Book of MY Lives. Twitter: @SashaHemon. Issue Ten, like all issues of The Blizzard is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"It is a cringe-worthy advert produced by Qatar Airways, starring the players of Barcelona. It is 40 seconds of distilled ideology at its purest. Messi and the gang roll up to the check-in desk in their rock-star gear. Behind them lies a void of squeaky clean airport marble, like a hospital for rich people. It is notable how the 105,000 fans who attend each home game have been erased from this fantasy. And all of this with Samsung suitcases." In Episode Sixteen we look back at Alexander Shea's 'Against Sanitised Football' from Issue Seventeen. Can fans fight back against clubs who seek to ignore their history for bland branding? If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Alexander Shea researches football ultra groups who mobilise as paramilitaries during international warfare. Based at the University of Oxford, he is currently researching the phenomenon in the former Yugoslavia, contemporary Ukraine and Armenia. Twitter: @Alexander_Shea. Issue Seventeen, like all issues of The Blizzard is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"One good season is now usually enough to earn a big move, but football’s current landscape is claiming more and more victims of the game’s Peter Principle – 'everyone in an organisation keeps on getting promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. At that point, they stop being promoted.'"
In Episode Fifteen we look ahead to Rupert Fryer’s ‘The Peter Principle’ from the upcoming Issue Nineteen (available to subscribers now, and on general sale from 9th December). Does the Peter Principle apply in football as well as in the business world? Who are the footballers hoping to avoid becoming the Peters of 2014-15?
If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.
Rupert Fryer is a freelance journalist and co-founder of SouthAmericanFootball.co.uk. He has written on South American football for the likes of Fox Sports, the Guardian, the Observer and Sport360. Twitter: @Rupert_Fryer
Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, will be available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“What you see is 90 minutes of action treated almost as a distraction from the real business of sport: the narrative of news… Reality is not enough, so it is expanded, meaning is extrapolated, significance is assumed. And all of it around a structure to ensure maximum exposure, maximum interest.” In Episode Fourteen we bring you ‘Is Football Still Sport? by Rory Smith. Channelling the ‘structured reality’ of ITV’s documentary soap-opera The Only Way Is Essex, and the ‘sports entertainment’ of WWE wrestling, Rory asks, seeing as it unfolds like a soap opera for the entertainment of millions and the profit of a few, what has football in the age of Sky and Super Sunday become? If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Rory Smith writes about football for The Times, as long as someone with a foreign-sounding name is in the news. He has previously worked at all three Mirror titles, both of the Telegraphs and, briefly, a pair of Independents. He ghosted Rafael Benitez's first memoir, Champions League Dreams, and moved some commas around on The Numbers Game. He was once nearly on Blockbusters. Twitter: @RorySmithTimes. Issue Two, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Xavi’s movement is a kind of reverse sheepdog trick — instead of penning a flock in to an enclosed space, his darting, nipping and barking is about spreading them around the field, into unexplored, unpredictable spaces.” In Episode Thirteen we bring you ‘The Inverted Sheepdog’ by Graham Hunter, which looks in detail at how the Spain international became the creative hub of the all-conquering Barcelona team of the early twenty-first century. As Graham himself puts it “Sublime player, top man. A footballer who epitomises what has gone right at Barcelona over the last couple of decades.” If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Graham Hunter moved to Barcelona in 2001. He is a journalist of international reputation and covers Spanish football for Sky Sports, the BBC and newspapers and magazines across the world. Twiter: @bumpergraham. Issue Four, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“Erbstein’s was an extraordinary life that was characterised by courage and resourcefulness in the face of adversity. That he and his family survived the holocaust was a matter of astonishing good fortune, but just four years after the end of the war, Erbstein was killed with his team, Il Grande Torino, in the Superga air crash.” In Episode Twelve of the Blizzard Podcast we bring you an extract from Chapters 10 and 11 of ‘Erbstein: The triumph and tragedy of football’s forgotten pioneer’ by Dominic Bliss, published by Blizzard Books in 2014. The book is the result of years of painstaking research into one of football’s forgotten greats. Erbstein was part of the great Jewish coaching tradition developed in the coffee houses of Budapest, and after a playing career that included stints in Hungary, Italy and the USA, he moved to Bari to embark on a coaching career that soon became noted for its innovativeness. He would go on to coach the great Torino side of the 1940s who dominated Italian football, until the tragic accident that claimed the lives of the squad, and their manager, at Superga in 1949. The extract in this episode details his family's experiences during the Hungarian holocaust, and how his quick wits and contacts helped spare the lives of his wife and daughters from a fascist death-march in 1944. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. The book is available from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost £3, while print versions are available from £10 + postage. You can also find it on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“’He describes himself as a ‘fiddler’. I’d say he’s more than that: a born crook. He would attempt and succeed in staging the most abject of blackmails — the blackmail of hope. Dressed in a German uniform, he’d get out of a car seized from the maquis and embark on the following monologue: ‘To what extremities am I reduced, I, a Frenchman, forced to wear the German uniform, these awful rags! [...] They’re going to kill you – but I’ll save you, risking my life. I’ve saved fifty-four. You’ll be the fifty-fifth. That’ll be 400,000 francs.’” In Episode Eleven of the Blizzard Podcast we bring you 'The Collaborator’ by Philippe Auclair from Issue One, which details the treacherous life and traitor’s death of Alexandre Villaplane, France’s first World Cup captain turned crook and Nazi collaborator. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Philippe Auclair is the author of The Enchanted Kingdom of Tony Blair (in French), Cantona: the Rebel Who Would Be King, which was named NSC Football Book of the Year, and a biography of Thierry Henry. He writes for France Football. Twitter: @PhilippeAuclair Issue One, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"It had been foolish of me to blame football for the dangerous passions it can unleash. Turning against football on these grounds would be like hating democracy because people voted for Thatcher." In Episode Ten of the Blizzard Podcast we bring you 'The Lager of Life' by Tim Vickery from Issue Nine. It is a game haunted by violence, but can it be blamed for it? Are big derby matches just a 90-minute version of Orwell's Three-Minute Hate? If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Tim Vickery writes and broadcasts on South American football for the BBC, World Soccer, ESPN, SBS and TalkSport. Twitter @Tim_Vickery. Issue Nine, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
John ‘Jack’ Slater, Bolton full-back between 1905 and 1914, would go on to own one of Britain’s largest industrial conglomerates. He survived financial crashes of many millions of pounds and went on to become football's first (and to date only) MP. In Episode Nine of the Blizzard Podcast we bring you John Harding's story of football's first millionaire from Issue Fourteen. The son of a mill-worker went from signing a £4 a week contract for a provincial club to completing business deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds in today's money, and would go on to rub shoulders in the House of Commons with Aneurin Bevan, Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. John Harding is the PFA's official historian, and writes on a variety of topics ranging from literary and sporting biography to cultural history and criticism. Issue Fourteen, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"It's possible something brilliantly illuminating happened there, part Escape To Victory, part footballing salon, part late-colonial Woodstock distilled through sternly moustachioed men of empire." In Episode Eight of the Blizzard Podcast we bring you Barney Ronay's 'The Bomb and the Bowler Hat' from Issue Three, looking back at the extraordinary collection of football minds interred in the Ruhleben Camp outside Berlin during World War One. The legacy of those collected in the prisoner of war camp, including influential coaches of clubs such as Athletic Bilbao and FC Nurnburg, could well be the birth of modern football as we know it. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Barney Ronay writes for the Guardian about sport. He is the author of several football books including The Manager and Any Chance Of A Game? and writes occasionally for film and television, most recently co-scripting the feature film From The Ashes. Twitter: @BarneyRonay Issue Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Cultural exports have led us to believe that all Swedish people are blonde, live in IKEA-furnished houses, can produce catchy pop-songs and are mostly named Ulf. This is largely the case, but that isn't the Sweden Zlatan Ibrahimović grew up in." In Episode Seven of The Blizzard Podcast we bring you Lars Sivertsen's 'The Bicycle Thief' from Issue Eight which tackles the enigma that is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and looks at how his upbringing in the tough Malmo suburb of Rosengard shaped him into the footballer he has become today. As is often the case when things involve Zlatan, this episode contains more than its fair share of 'industrial' language. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Lars Sivertsen is a Norwegian writer based in London. He is Premier League Correspondent for TV 2 Norway and a regular contributor to Josimar. Twitter: @larssivertsen Issue Eight, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"The GDR's national team - so notorious for choking when it counted - managed to qualify for a World Cup for the only time in their history. It was, of course, the World Cup in West Germany" In Episode Six of the Blizzard Podcast we bring you Uli Hesse's 'Never the Twain' looking back at the meeting between East Germany and West Germany at the 1974 World Cup, and the consequences of a meeting between an East German player and the West German Minister of Finance, which was first published in Issue Thirteen in June 2014. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Uli Hesse is the author of Tor! The Story of German Football and co-author of Who Invented the Stepover? He has also written three German-language football books, is a regular columnist for ESPN, a contributing editor of Champions magazine and has been published on five continents.
Issue Thirteen, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
"Many of those parents who did arrive with their children were carrying Geiger counters. Before each match, they would hastily walk over the pitch to take measures of the air at grass level." In Episode Five of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at Javier Sauras and Felix Lill's 'After the Earthquake', and how football is playing its part in rebuilding the shattered communities around Fukushima, first published in Issue Sixteen. To suggest an article you'd like to hear in Episode Six, email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk by Monday 28th September, and we'll pick one lucky winner out of the metaphorical hat. Issue Sixteen, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
International football is ceasing to be treated as a reenactment of Europe's horrible past. Is the age of football as a substitute for war coming to an end? "A World Cup without Germany would be like Star Wars without Darth Vader," remarked David Winner, and Germany were the perfect villain: the bad guy who killed the beautiful teams, like Hungary in 1954, Holland in 1974, France in 1982. But the new, reunified Germany has ceased to be Darth Vader, and just don't provoke the same hatred anymore. In Episode Four of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at Simon Kuper's 'Where's Darth Vader Gone?' from Issue Five, published in June 2012. We're keen to hear your feedback and suggestions on these new podcasts - email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Simon Kuper is author of Football Against the Enemy, a winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and Ajax, The Dutch, The War. His latest book, The Football Men, was published by Simon & Schuster in May 2011. He is a columnist with the Financial Times. A new expanded edition of Soccernomics (previously called Why England Lose in the UK) was published last summer.
Issue Five, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
In 1982 the French international Jean-Pierre Adams went to hospital and was given anaesthetic that should have knocked him out for a few hours. 33 years later, he has still not woken up. In Episode Three of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at Robin Bairner's 'Sleeping Giant' from Issue Twelve, published in March 2014. We're keen to hear your feedback and suggestions on these new podcasts - email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Robin Bairner is a French football writer primarily found working for Goal. He also holds a keen interest in the Scottish game. Twitter: @RBairner. Issue Twelve, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.
“His memory was gone, ravaged by Alzheimer’s, but when I told him, I saw a flicker in his eyes. ’Do you remember Clough?’ I asked, talking, to be honest, for the sake of talking; he couldn’t have told me, by then, what day it was or what he’d had for lunch. ‘Of course I do,’ he snapped, and went to describe a hat-trick Clough had scored against Grimsby. Although I continued to visit every day, that was probably the last ‘proper’ conversation we had.” In Episode Two of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at one of the articles for which we have received the most feedback - Jonathan Wilson's editorial from Issue Three, in which he talks about the death of his father, and what fandom means to him. We also spoke to Jonathan after our live event in Manchester to find out a little more about the article and how it came about, whether he's getting any better at judging which pieces will generate the most reaction while he's editing each issue, and ask him for some of his highlights from Issue Eighteen. We're keen to hear your feedback on these new podcasts - email podcast@theblizzard.co.uk, or find us on Twitter @blzzrd. Jonathan Wilson is the editor of The Blizzard, and author of Inverting the Pyramid. He writes for the Guardian, the National, World Soccer, Fox and Sports Illustrated. He is writing a book on the history of Argentinian football. Twitter: @jonawils Issue Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12).
The Blizzard Q&A recorded live at the National Football Museum as part of the Manchester Football Writing Festival, on the evening of 1st September. With a panel of Blizzard contributors - David Conn, Andy Brassell and editor Jonathan Wilson - hosted by the Football Ramble's Marcus Speller. A heavyweight first half features discussion on the key takeaways from this summer's transfer window, the effect of the new Premier League TV deal, a mention for the Chinese stock market and some talk about financial fair play and the corrupt nest of debauchery that is Fifa. In the second half the panel looked at footballers' diva moments, answer a fan's query as to WTF is going on at Man United, ponder the lifespan of a manager and the tactical dunce that is Laurent Blanc. There's also some chat on the role of the full-back, and recollections of difficult/awful interviews, which throws up the unlikely triumvirate of Darius Vassell, Dave Whelan and Colin Kazim Richards. As ever with our live events we do the best we can with the sound quality at our disposal, what with roving mikes, the odd bit of feedback, guaranteed big laughs and on this occasion Jonathan Wilson doing an impression of a raving Louis van Gaal spiking the top of the microphone range. Those minor issues aside, we trust you'll enjoy the podcast.
"He may be Britain's most popular comic footballer, but Roy of the Rovers embodies everything that's wrong about the English game" Episode One of the Blizzard Podcast, a new venture where we'll be bringing you some audio editions of our favourite articles from the Blizzard archives. To kick things off, where else to start but with an article from our pilot edition, Issue Zero, and Scott Murray's 'How Roy Race Ruined English Football'. As this is a new venture from us, we're keen to get your feedback - email info@theblizzard.co.uk, find us on Facebook or head to Twitter - @blzzrd. Scott Murray writes for the Guardian. He is co-author of And Gazza Misses The Final, a history of the World Cup through the medium of minute-by-minute match reports. He also co-wrote The Anatomy of Liverpool and Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, the World's Worst Golfer. Issue Zero, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as a 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.