The Blizzard

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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.