The Blizzard

"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 thus. In Episode Twenty Four we revisit Nick Szczepanik's 'South of the River' from Issue Four, published in 2012, which looks back to a time when South London's four clubs - Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace, Millwall and Wimbledon - were in rude footballing health as Crystal Palace's promotion in 1989 meant all four were in the top flight together for the first time. It's fair to say that the fortunes of two of the area's Championship clubs at the time of writing, Charlton and Crystal Palace, have somewhat diverged since. Nick Szczepanik is a freelance football writer contributing mainly to the Independent and Independent on Sunday after 15 years with the Times. Twitter: @NickSzczepanik.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Four, 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.

"Grant realised that nightmares had tortured his father every night... It had been going on for years. After hearing his father scream that night, Avram vowed that he would find out everything that had happened to his family - and find the lost graves of those relatives who were buried in far-off lands."In Episode Twenty Three we revisit Igor Rabiner's 'Closure' from Issue Eleven, the story of former Chelsea manager Avram Grant's emotional search for the graves of his ancestors, who died in a Russian gulag in the 1940's. A story of coincidences, aided by football, Grant visits distant, rural Russia where his father, the easy-tempered, lively, optimistic man had been forced to hand-dig the graves of his parents more than 60 years previously.Igor Rabiner is the author of 16 books including How Spartak Has Been Killed (in Russian), winner in the Sports Investigation category at Knizhnoe Obozrenie's Sports Book Awards. His latest is SEx in Sports, examining the ups and downs of Sport-Express and sports journalism in Russia. He has been Russian Football Journalist of the Year four times.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 print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"Two days later the Australians were back at the Cong Hoa Stadium to face the hosts South Vietnam. The atmosphere was tense, the pitch surrounded by barbed wire, army snipers and soldiers armed with fixed bayonets."In Episode Twenty Two we look back to Davidde Corran's 'Tour of Duty' which details the unlikeliest of football tours as the Australian national team were parachuted into Saigon at the height of the Vietnam war to take part in an 8-team friendly tournament. Still 7 years before they would first qualify for a World Cup, the Socceroos nonetheless lifted their first continental trophy under the most difficult of circumstances.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.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.

“As a result of not smoking I’m now fitter and have more money. And that works just fine, until you see a picture of Berbatov or Özil or Socrates puffing away on a cigarette and looking like the coolest bastard in the world. Berbatov is not only cooler than me, but is also fitter and has more money. So what was the point of giving up?”In Episode Twenty One we feature ‘Literally on Fire’ by Jonathan Liew, looking at the complicated history of smoking and football. From collectable cigarette cards in the late 19th century to Dixie Dean and Stanley Matthews endorsing cigarette brands, to long-lens paparazzi snapping pictures of stars on holiday taking a puff on a cheeky fag, the relationship between sport and smoking has changed completely.Jonathan Liew writes about sport for the Daily Telegraph and is a former Young Sportswriter of the Year, as wistfully sepia-tinted as that sounds. Twitter: @jonathanliewIf you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Ten, 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.

"Little did people know that Cruyff's column would have a profound impact and lead to the so-called 'Velvet Revolution', which would soon become bloody. That it would lead to ugly court cases and yet another showdown between Cruyff and Van Gaal, forcing fans to pick either their mother or their father in a bitter divorce case".In episode Twenty we look back to Elko Born's 'The Velvet Revolution' from Issue Fourteen, which details the struggle for power at the top of Ajax, arguably for the soul of Dutch football itself, and the fallout from Cruyff and Van Gaal's, er, fallout. 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 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.

"They have been drawn in a difficult group, but hey, everyone has been drawn in a difficult group. With this foreign coach they will go far. He understands them. He is up-to-date with his practice and methodology. His parents know Africa. They were traders. Or missionaries. Or both."In episode Nineteen we look back to Luke Alfred's 'An African Parable' from Issue Zero, which contains no names or teams that you will recognise by their names or the colours of their shirts, but a story that you will know because it is so common as to be representative. 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 print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"Both were scarred by defeat and disappointment, both were obsessed by the fear of failure; both distrusted the press and surrounded themselves with a small group of loyalists. They remained difficult men to love."In episode Eighteen we look back to Dominic Sandbrook's 'Revie-Nixon' from Issue One, in which he examines the parallels between the US politician and the England and Leeds United manager. From their upbringings to their carfeer trajectories, to the ultimate downfalls and ignominious exists that defined their careers, there's a lot more in common between the two men than you might think at first glance.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Dominic Sandbrook is a historian. His most recent book, Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979, accompanying his BBC2 documentary series on the 1970s, was published by Allen Lane. Twitter: @dcsandbrookIssue One, 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.

"To pass is to relinquish control, to give up the certainty of the ball at your feet for the uncertain outcome. To pass is to anticipate and imagine a future, while to keep the ball and dribble is to stay in the moment for as long as possible."In Episode Seventeen we look back to 'Notes on Street Football' by Aleksandar Hemon, first published in Issue Ten in September 2013. What can kickabouts on street corners and parking lots reveal about the tortured artists of neo-romantic myth? Are the romantic street-artists on the wane in the age of globalised, professionalised, commercialised football?If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Aleksandar Hemon is a Bosnian-American writer and novelist. His novel, The Lazarus Project, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Awards. His most recent book is a work of non-fiction, The Book of MY Lives. Twitter: @SashaHemon. Issue Ten, 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.

"It is a cringe-worthy advert produced by Qatar Airways, starring the players of Barcelona. It is 40 seconds of distilled ideology at its purest. Messi and the gang roll up to the check-in desk in their rock-star gear. Behind them lies a void of squeaky clean airport marble, like a hospital for rich people. It is notable how the 105,000 fans who attend each home game have been erased from this fantasy. And all of this with Samsung suitcases."In Episode Sixteen we look back at Alexander Shea's 'Against Sanitised Football' from Issue Seventeen. Can fans fight back against clubs who seek to ignore their history for bland branding?If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Alexander Shea researches football ultra groups who mobilise as paramilitaries during international warfare. Based at the University of Oxford, he is currently researching the phenomenon in the former Yugoslavia, contemporary Ukraine and Armenia. Twitter: @Alexander_Shea.Issue Seventeen, 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.

"One good season is now usually enough to earn a big move, but football’s current landscape is claiming more and more victims of the game’s Peter Principle – 'everyone in an organisation keeps on getting promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. At that point, they stop being promoted.'"

In Episode Fifteen we look ahead to Rupert Fryer’s ‘The Peter Principle’ from the upcoming Issue Nineteen (available to subscribers now, and on general sale from 9th December). Does the Peter Principle apply in football as well as in the business world? Who are the footballers hoping to avoid becoming the Peters of 2014-15?

If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions email [email protected], or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.

Rupert Fryer is a freelance journalist and co-founder of SouthAmericanFootball.co.uk. He has written on South American football for the likes of Fox Sports, the Guardian, the Observer and Sport360. Twitter: @Rupert_Fryer

Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, will be 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.