The following article first appeared in Issue 39, released in December 2020. The story of the Nepalese labourers building Qatar’s World Cup stadiums. Tribhuvan Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal. November 2018. Football is the icebreaker. It always is. Within seconds of sitting down in departures my neighbour and I have exchanged the basics; who we love, who we […]
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Blizzard-40 Sampler
The Man Who Ate His Hat
"[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 […]
Foreword (or Forward) by Irvine Welsh
The foreword for Man the Footballer: Homo Passiens by Irvine Welsh. Now I get it! Homo sapiens is a recently arrived imposter in the evolution of the genus Homo – a mountebank, a charlatan, a confidence trickster, a fraud, a fraudster, a rogue, a villain, a scoundrel, a quack! All that academic stuff about consciousness, […]
For the Want of a Nail, Jim Keoghan
What if Everton had followed up initial interest in Ian Rush in 1980? “And it’s played across for Rush… that’s another one! And that will make it safe for Liverpool.” Brian Moore’s words cemented what those watching had felt for some time, that the 1986 FA Cup was Anfield-bound. Outplayed by Everton and 1-0 down […]
Turkish Delight
Below is an extract of John Toshack’s autobiography Toshack’s Way, published by deCoubertin, which looks at his time in Turkey, as manager of Besiktas, between 1997 and 1999. Turkey is a unique country. If you go to Turkey to work, in any line of business, then you’ve got to have your sensors on. You’ve got […]
Issue Forty One
Introduction Issue 41: Editor’s Note – Jonathan Wilson Jonathan Wilson’s Editor’s Note from Issue Forty One Ownership The President Ultra – Aleks Eror Aleksandar Vučić and the uneasy relationship between football and politics in Serbia Out of the Frying Pan – Heather McKinlay How escaping Roland Duchâtelet took Charlton to the edge of extinction The Forgotten Founder – Reiss […]
Blizzard-41 Sampler
South Of The River
"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 […]
44 Days, Later – The Blizzard Podcast Episode Seventy Eight
Why Jock Stein lasted no longer than Brian Clough at Elland Road