The Blizzard

"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: @DaviddeCorranIf you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.

Decade by decade league tables chart the changing tides of footballing successIn 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.