The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue 10

by Jonathan Wilson (Editor), Philippe Auclair, Michael Petrak

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 Ten contains 22 articles in 10 different sections:

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Forgotten
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The Dreamers, by Philippe Auclair — Amid the protests of 1968, a group of journalists took French football leaders hostage
The Silenced Crowd, by Richard Fitzpatrick - When Manchester United and Liverpool colluded to fix a match
The Reluctant Cabbie, by Michal Petrák - The tragically curtailed career of the Czechoslovak great Rudolf Kucera
The Unmarked Grave, by Tom Adams - What really happened to Andrew Watson, British football’s first black star
The Talent Spotters, by Mike Calvin - A glimpse into the murky and unglamorous world of football scouts
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Interview
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Fatih Terim, by Andy Brassell - The Emperor on the rise of Turkish football and breaking the glass ceiling with Galatasaray
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Nationalisms
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Anyone But China, by Henryk Szadziewski - Football plays a vital role in establishing a sense of identity for the Uyghur people
The Hamburg Factor, by Simon Kuper - The Euro 88 semi-final marked the peak of the Dutch-German football rivalry
No Man’s Land, by Jonathan Wilson- Sinisa Mihajlovic, Vukovar and the compromises of war
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Photo Essay
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Golden Vision, by Felix Lill and Javier Sauras - The Olympic dream that fires the world’s greatest blind footballer
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Theory
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Notes on Street Football, by Aleksandar Hemon - What kickabouts reveal about the tortured artists of neo-romantic myth
A Man for all Seasons, by Aleksandar Holiga - Tomislav Ivic pioneered pressing and won league titles in five different countries
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Writers
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The Thinker, by Vladimir Novak - Ivan Ergic on the competing draws of football and philosophy
More Important Than That, by Anthony Clavane - David Peace discusses Red or Dead, his novel about the life of Bill Shankly
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Polemics
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Literally on Fire, by Jonathan Liew - How the game’s relationship with smoking has changed over the years
The Death of Mystery, by Rory Smith - Is the modern thirst for knowledge taking the fun out of football?
An Extra Edge, by Colin O’Brien – Is football really clean, or does the sport have its head in the sand?
Importing “Puto!”, by Nicolas Poppe – What a chant reveals about attitudes to homosexuality in US stadiums
The Voice of a Nation, by Dan Edwards – The commentator Victor Hugo Morales is controversial, but makes football matter
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Fiction
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Los Cincos y los Diezes, by Rupert Fryer - A letter changes the life of a young footballer forever
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Greatest Games
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AC Milan 2 Benfica 1, by Miguel Delaney - European Cup final, Wembley Stadium, London, 22 May 1963
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Eight Bells
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Computer Games, by George Osborn - Key moments in the development of the football sim

Genres: Football, Nonfiction

194 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2013

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

[Bobblers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found it quite good, up until I got to Jonathan Iiews contribution. I find myself thinking do i really care about what he has to say? I mean he's boring at best in his style and someone no one is really interested in

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good solid writing pretty much throughout again from the Blizzard contributors.

Highlights for me included an article about the Uyghur people and their football in the far west of China and their relationship to China. For people interested in this region of the world and their culture I recommend Colin Thubron's 'The Silk Road' which is a fascinating book and provides a wonderful perspective from the region.

There's good articles about the world of scouting, the feud between Germany and Holland. Their is an article on performance enhancing drugs in football and the lack of people caught out. Whilst there is no 'evidence' of cheating, it is in fact that lack of 'evidence' in the worlds richest game with hundreds of thousands of paid professionals that is cause to question. The fiction in here is surprisingly good (after recent efforts) focusing on the impact of the Falklands War on a young player. The article on football computer games is decent although as a recovering Football Manager addict I'm amazed that wasn't number 1 in the list.

There's a fair bit in this issue about football from the former Yugoslavia which will either work for the reader or not. The only article I didn't like was the one about smoking footballers being cool. I'm an ex-smoker but I really don't see anything rebellious about anyone puffing on a ciggie.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent outing from The Blizzard and there are many highlights in this issue. Amongst these, Jonathan Liew on smoking and football is one - and this is before Jack Wilshere's chimney impression of a few weeks ago - as well as Jonathan Wilson himself (not quite managing to convince us that Siniša Mihajlović isn't a bad'un), Colin O'Brien on drugs and football (in particular, the suspicious lack of Lance Armstrong-style scandals) and Andy Brassell's interview with former Galatasaray and Fiorentina boss Fatih Terim. The one quibble surrounds the inclusion of a full length extract from Michael Calvin's enjoyable book, The Nowhere Men - I'm not sure this is the place for previously published material, good as it is.

[Steven Pilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting especially the article on China as series continues the range gets wider and more complex

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peerless football writing.