The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue 18

by Jonathan Wilson (Editor), Ann Tornkvist, James Montague

The Blizzard is a quarterly football publication, put together by a cooperative of journalists and authors, its main aim to provide a platform for top-class writers from across the globe to enjoy the space and the freedom to write what they like about the football stories that matter to them.

Issue Eighteen contains 20 articles in 8 different sections:
----------------
Outsiders
----------------
* The Turf War, by Ann Tornkvist - How the murder of promising footballer Eddie Moussa sheds light on Sweden's gang culture
* The Agony of Doha, by James Montague - Despair at a World Cup qualifying tournament in 1993 proved the springboard for the rise of Japan
* Out of the Shadows, by Peter McVitie - The remarkable rise of PEC Zwolle, the minnow who reached successive Dutch Cup finals
* Porterfield's Legacy, by Robert O'Connor - His former assistant Tom Jones remembers how Ian Porterfield inspired Armenia's resurgence
----------------
Liverpool
----------------
* The Forgotten Full-Back, by Scott Murray - John Barnes, John Aldridge and Peter Beardsley dazzled, but Steve Nicol was key to Liverpool's 1987-88 title
* Accidental Hero, by Shaul Adar - Ronnie Rosenthal played an implausibly important role in Liverpool's last title success
* Farewell, My Lovely, by Dileep Premachandran - A fan who followed from afar pays tribute to Steven Gerrard
----------------
Foundations
----------------
* The Ball Game Bulganin, by John Harding - It's 60 years since Jimmy Guthrie led the Professional Footballs Association into the TUC
* The Unacknowledged Filters, by Jack Pitt-Brooke - Uncovering the hidden world of the football translator
* The Nietzschean Dream of Barcelona, by Uriah Kriegel - Luis Enrique found the perfect blend of Apollonian and Dionysian to reinvigorate Barca
* Flight of the Ladybird, by Jonathan Wilson - A centenary celebration of the publisher whose history of football was a set text for generations
----------------
Polemics
----------------
* The Subscription Model, by Tsjalle van der Burg - Does putting football on pay television really make economic sense?
* A Convenient Culprit, by Luke Alfred - Is Steve Goddard really the only man to blame for South Africa's match-fixing scandal?
----------------
Women's World Cup
----------------
* Settling the Score, by Glenn Moore - The USA won a third title as the women's game confirmed the huge strides it has taken
----------------
Copa America
----------------
* The 99-Year Wait, by Jonathan Wilson - Under Jorge Sampaoli, Chile discovered a pragmatic edge to win their first trophy
* Shifting Plates, by Sergio Levinsky - What the Copa America told us about the balance of power in Conmebol
* The Unappreciated Genius, by Sergio Levinsky - After another defeat in a final, the Argentinian public is losing patience with Lionel Messi
* The Caravan of Death, by Carl Worswick - El Estadio Nacional, where the final was won, played a central role in the aftermath of Pinochet's coup
----------------
Greatest Games
----------------
* Manchester United 2 Liverpool 2, by Rob Smyth - Premiership, Old Trafford, 1 October 1995
----------------
Eight Bells
----------------
* Head Boys, by Naomi Westland - A seleciton of football-playing heads of state

Genres: Football

193 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Jonathan Wilson is a British sports journalist and author who writes for a number of publications including the Guardian, the Independent and Sports Illustrated. He also appears on the Guardian football podcast, Football Weekly.

Reviews

[Jon Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt deeply sorry for Naomi Westland. Normally this is the ‘And Finally…’ of The Blizzard, an aperitif to wind the reader down and always following the ‘classic matches’ article. And it’s a fun enough conceit, fairly sly about how world leaders have used and abused the beautiful game for their own ends (and sometimes actually even genuinely love it). But here it follows one of the most majestic articles in The Blizzard’s existence. Rob Smyth’s piece on the Cantona comeback game takes one match as its centrepiece but extends it more widely, using it to reappraise the mid-1990s, Manchester United’s dominance, the Liverpool ‘Spice Boys’ side and musing on how history is often dictated by results and trophies rather than reasoned hindsight. I’d not been a fan of Smyth’s prior to this but this demonstrates how good he is when given the space. It’s essentially exactly the sort of article The Blizzard’s for and worth the entry fee alone.

Elsewhere this is a typically eclectic collection. It’s a particularly good issue for Liverpool fans with Smyth’s articles complemented by a trio reflecting on the forgotten, key role played by Steve Nicol in Liverpool’s most aesthetically pleasing side, Ronny Rosenthal’s late burst that inspired their last title and a salute to Steven Gerrard from a long-distance fan. There are also welcome reflections on the Women’s World Cup and Copa America, an economically literate querying of whether pay TV is healthy for football (and possible alternatives), the philosophy behind Luis Enrique’s Barcelona, football trade unionism and the horror of events in Chile’s El Estadio Nacional during Pinochet’s coup. As ever, required reading for any discerning football reader.

[Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite enjoyed Peter McVitie on the rise of PEC Zwolle; some of the pieces on South American football, especially Jonathan Wilson on Chile's renaissance and Carl Worswick on El Estadio Nacional's grim history; and Glenn Moore on 2015 Women's World Cup. Rob Smyth's 'Greatest Games' entry on Manchester United vs Liverpool in October 1995 was in a league of its own though.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

As ever, a lot to enjoy but, rarely for this publication, one article stands heads and shoulders above the rest - Rob Smyth's lengthy summation of the Liverpool/Manchester United rivalry of the 1990s - some juicy anecdotes entertain in a balanced piece from the writer with the term 'Spice Boy's roundly debunked and poor Roy Evans experiencing a degree of reputation rehabilitation. Elsewhere, Jonathan Wilson's account of the 2015 Copa America is as good as you would expect.