The Blizzard
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Ronaldo In Moscow
17 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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...
Tour of Duty (with By Association)
10 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For this week’s episode we present the most recent offering from By Association, an award-winning narrative podcast about football, based in Austral...
The Sweep Of History
03 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Decade by decade league tables chart the changing tides of footballing success In Episode Ninety Seven of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "The Sweep...
Free For All
27 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
In The Shadow Of The Goldfish
06 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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 k...
Crime Of Passion
29 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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 w...
In Appreciation Of Angelo Di Livio
15 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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 ...
Estadio Azteca
07 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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 Azte...
Why Is The World Cup Boring?
25 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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 sl...
Location, Location, Location
17 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"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 a...
Bye Bye Bebe
11 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“I am going to be a brilliant player,” Bebé said. He wasn’t. To our surprise, given his mediocre showing for the reserves, he made his United d...
The Unmarked Grave
04 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Watson, described by the Scottish Football Association Annual of 1880-81 as “one of the very best backs we have”, represented two of the 19th cen...
Football On TV
21 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"On 14 April 1937, the BBC studios at Alexandra Palace played host to the first television demonstration of snooker, an exhibition of play by Horace L...
The Race Card
14 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"At some point we probably need to grow up and agree what we will and will not allow in our football grounds. Right now, anything goes, except for rac...
A Game Of Three Halves
07 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"It was at that point that the original referee arrived. According to the Derby Daily Telegraph, Kirkham claimed to have been “misdirected by a tick...
Setting Sun
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“Leyton Orient Football Club is not my life, but it has been the only constant in it. I realise that every major event, every stage, every shifting ...
Issue 25 And An Update
16 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
An update on why things have been quiet on the podcast front for the last couple of weeks (aside from a live event and a collaboration with By Associa...
The Silenced Crowd (in Collaboration With By Association)
02 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“There was no fooling the 18,000 spectators at Old Trafford. “Play up, you rotters!” they screamed. The fix was on. They knew it, as Manchester ...
Live in Edinburgh - 2017 (Part Two)
30 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Despite being on a podcast hiatus while we work on some exciting things behind the scenes we still found time to do a live recording of our Q&A ev...
Live in Edinburgh - 2017
30 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Despite being on a podcast hiatus while we work on some exciting things behind the scenes we still found time to do a live recording of our Q&A ev...
The Other Cup
12 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Now glance at the name “Europa League”. What information does it convey? It’s a league for… the abstract concept of Europe? For women who ride...
Live in Dublin #4 (Second Half)
25 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The second half of our Q&A event at Dublin’s Sugar Club held on Monday 24th April. The panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Iain Macin...
Live in Dublin #4 (First Half)
25 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The first half of our Q&A event at Dublin’s Sugar Club held on Monday 24th April. The panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair and Iain Macint...
44 Days, Later
21 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Why Leeds? Well, apart from a rumoured offer from Kuwait, they were the only club that came in for him. Even then, Stein wasn’t the first choice to...
The Dawson's Creek Principle
07 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Now that I’m fully aware of this principle, I look for its application whenever I’m watching football. Whenever a player scores a tremendous goal...
Where Now For Iceland?
31 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"In some ways Iceland has been lucky. Had the country’s banks collapsed a few years earlier than they did in 2008, there would not have been the sam...
Orban Planning
24 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Only a month before the 8-1 defeat in Amsterdam, the government had announced its plan to host European Championship games in 2020... News of the gra...
Senior Citizen
17 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"At that point the Italian Marco Barlotta, 42, was named as the oldest player still in action. Robert had already turned 48 at that point. Determined ...
Identity Crisis
10 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"But while club identity clings on bravely in this fast-shifting world, rooted in local history and socio-politics as much as what’s happened on the...
A Sense Of Responsibility
24 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"There is a need, now more than ever, for a sense of responsibility. that’s true for readers and commenters, but it’s especially true for writers...
Slaggy Island
17 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"South Bank lies three miles east of Middlesbrough. Locally they call it Slaggy Island in honour of the ring of spoil heaps that once cut it off from ...
The Centre-back And The Kitchen Knife
10 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"I think I was looking for something to replace the adrenaline rush, the buzz you get, that feeling of really being alive. You get used to performing ...
But You Can't Change..
03 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"You are among the football hacks summoned to Downing Street by Margaret Thatcher. She has the eyes of a tawny owl and clearly terrifies her minister...
Meanwhile Back In Sunderland
27 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"Back home, the locals closed up their shops and descended upon those neighbours who were fortunate enough to own colour televisions. Local boys, acco...
The Dictionary Of Received Ideas
20 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"JOHN TERRY (Updated, 2012 edition) Refer to his “strong personality” and “bravery”. LA MASIA The incubator of Spain’s golden age. Point o...
Care for the Community
13 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"But what if football rethought its relationship with TV? What if you could come up with a plan that would, at once, revitalise local support, help sm...
Chaos Theory
06 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
"We tend to trace the route of a goal back to the opening of the move – or at most, the breakdown of the previous one – when in truth its foundati...
Wenger, L'Auteur
23 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Yet there is maybe another reason that Wenger’s own cinematic narrative increasingly resembles a hubristic Greek tragedy rather than a story of red...
The Death Of Mystery
16 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"That is what has been lost: identity. Individuality, tradition, difference: all of the things that once made football such a gloriously varied menage...
Decline And Fall
09 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Created in the early 1960s by the then Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams and the cartoonist Barry Fantoni and cheered on by Peter Cook (who funded t...
Drowning In A Sea Of Irrelevance
02 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"There was a time when loudmouth megalomaniacs of questionable political beliefs were football managers and quietly eloquent, slightly bland men who a...
Before The Shopping Centre
18 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“Out of seeming nothing; Out of shadow and gloom; Out of a hollowed vacuum Came something to keep us in tune. Something to interest and please u...
The Waiting Game
11 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“In the place of the regular pressure to perform is the more diffuse but arguably more terrifying prospect of having to come on, at a moment’s not...
Accidental Hero
04 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“It was a relief to see the team sheet and to find out that Beardsley was not there,” said Lenny Lawrence, the Charlton manager, “Instead they s...
Hearts And Minds
28 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"In the past, the football of results tended to refer to a physical or cynical style but the recent success of Spain awoke a new realisation: technica...
Serie A V The Football League
20 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Hysen, Careca, Southall, Van Basten, Lentini... Even football’s most diligent historians might find it difficult to fathom how these 13 seconds of ...
What's A Vote Worth?
06 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"São Tomé eventually lost their Fifa vote and were dropped from the rankings... signs of international activity remain an apparition as Brazilian jo...
My Name Is Ally MacLeod And I Am A Winner
22 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Had Scotland contrived to bring home the World Cup, then perhaps the nationalist cause would have gathered even greater momentum. As it was, enthusia...
Do You Know The Way?
15 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Towards the end of the game I began to wonder how many of the devoted fans we had met would be able to name the Earthquake’s starting XI. At times ...
The Blizzard Live At The National Football Museum (2nd Half)
06 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the National Football Museum as part of the Manchester Football Writing Festival on Thurs...
The Blizzard Live At The National Football Museum (1st Half)
06 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 Thursd...
The Grim Result Of Modern Economics
31 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Every year, it feels, [the European Super League] comes closer. If access to it starts to be determined on such criteria as “historical merit”, i...
The Conversion Of St Pauli
25 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"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. Song...
In Memoriam
18 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"The stairwell where they were crushed looks horrifi cally tiny. The gates that had eventually sheered away from their concrete pillars still lay disc...
La Renaissance (with Philippe Auclair)
11 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"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 ran...
The Man Who Ate His Hat
03 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"[The BBC's] first adventure into live football came on 16 September 1937 when the London service from Alexandra Palace, transmitting to nearly 100 vi...
Why The Away Goals Rule Must Be Abolished
14 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“Europe seemed much bigger in the early 1970s. Iberia was governed by fascist dictators. There were two Germanys, West and East. With no rolling new...
The Birth Of The Fan
07 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“We were sorry to hear the offensive shouts of one ‘Mackintoshed stranger’, which, however, were almost entirely drowned out by the universal su...
The Kennedy Conundrum
29 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“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 t...
The Multi Kulti Question
23 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"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 c...
The First Twitter Tournament
16 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"If Euro 2012 seemed unusually vibrant it was in part because of those echoes, the resonance of a million instant verbal salutes, a million demands fo...
The Best Summer Of My Life
09 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Perhaps the death of optimism is just what happens when you reach middle age, that you recognise how cruel and capricious the world can be, how the b...
The Silenced Crowd
01 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“There was no fooling the 18,000 spectators at Old Trafford. “Play up, you rotters!” they screamed. The fix was on. They knew it, as Manchester ...
The Blizzard Live in Edinburgh - Part 2
25 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the WS Society in Edinburgh on 19th May. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe A...
The Blizzard Live in Edinburgh - Part 1
25 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The first half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the WS Society in Edinburgh on 19th May. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Au...
A Sentimental Journey (with Jonathan Wilson)
12 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“Perhaps, in this age of quasi-franchises and superclubs, when the structure of the competitions and the nature of globalisation makes the rich rich...
City And The City
04 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"The image of reinvention, conjuring up some kind of Google-land, can also, while understandably wanting to attract businesses, veer into overstating ...
One Hit Wonders
27 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“The nickname denoted a certain time in technology. Perhaps today he would have been ‘the Twitter scorer’ or ‘the Instagram attacker’. In th...
The Search For Space
20 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“Just as a newly-formed political party would be best off finding the point on the ideological spectrum where it can find the biggest ‘space’ (a...
Echoes In Eternity
13 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"When Ferguson moved into management in 1974, part-time at East Stirlingshire for £40 a week, the game was much less lucrative, broadcasters usually ...
The Whisky Option
06 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"By the ashtray lay a single sheet of paper and an unopened bottle of Scotch. Joao Rocha turning to his interlocutor without as much as a smile, said ...
In Appreciation Of Franco Baresi
30 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"There are pictures of the weeping comeback captain and Divine Ponytail consoling each other while Brazilian players dance in the background. No one d...
The Real Problem
23 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"There's something spectacularly silly about fans policing other fans for their adherence to the laws of fandom, as if not having one favourite club o...
Fading Embers
16 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“What is noticeable, immediately, is how little everyone is paying attention. They talk among themselves, rarely about the football, or they look at...
The Blizzard live in Dublin - Part 2
09 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at Dublin's Sugar Club on 3rd March 2016. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auc...
The Blizzard live in Dublin - Part 1
09 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The first half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at Dublin's Sugar Club on 3rd March 2016. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Aucl...
Ultra Violence
02 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"A heavy cloud of tear gas hung over a Tahrir Square in revolt. Buckling under the pressure of thousands of protestors, the epicentre of the Egyptian ...
Booze Boys
24 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Italia 90 was indeed the greatest excuse ever to go drinking in the history of Ireland... There is hardly a man alive in Ireland who does not have so...
The Forgotten Full-Back
17 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Anderson chased back, but Nicol dropped a shoulder as he entered the box from the side. Anderson skittered away on the seat of his pants, foot down a...
The Van Basten Of Hartlepool
11 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"When van Basten was visiting galeries, eating steamed vegetables and discussing the boundaries of freedom, Boydy was downing pints and going to grab-...
South Of The River
03 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"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, ...
Closure
27 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Grant realised that nightmares had tortured his father every night... It had been going on for years. After hearing his father scream that night, Avr...
Tour Of Duty
20 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"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 b...
Literally On Fire
13 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“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...
The Velvet Revolution
06 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"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 blood...
An African Parable
30 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"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 unders...
Revie - Nixon
23 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"Both were scarred by defeat and disappointment, both were obsessed by the fear of failure; both distrusted the press and surrounded themselves with a...
Notes On Street Football
16 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"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...
Against Sanitised Football
09 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"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. Mess...
The Peter Principle
02 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"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 ...
Is Football Still Sport?
25 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“What you see is 90 minutes of action treated almost as a distraction from the real business of sport: the narrative of news… Reality is not enoug...
The Inverted Sheepdog
18 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“Xavi’s movement is a kind of reverse sheepdog trick — instead of penning a flock in to an enclosed space, his darting, nipping and barking is a...
The Triumph and Tragedy of Football's Forgotten Pioneer
11 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“Erbstein’s was an extraordinary life that was characterised by courage and resourcefulness in the face of adversity. That he and his family survi...
The Collaborator
04 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“’He describes himself as a ‘fiddler’. I’d say he’s more than that: a born crook. He would attempt and succeed in staging the most abject ...
The Lager Of Life
28 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"It had been foolish of me to blame football for the dangerous passions it can unleash. Turning against football on these grounds would be like hating...
Football's First Millionaire
21 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
John ‘Jack’ Slater, Bolton full-back between 1905 and 1914, would go on to own one of Britain’s largest industrial conglomerates. He survived fi...
The Bomb and the Bowler Hat
14 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"It's possible something brilliantly illuminating happened there, part Escape To Victory, part footballing salon, part late-colonial Woodstock distill...
The Bicycle Thief
07 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"Cultural exports have led us to believe that all Swedish people are blonde, live in IKEA-furnished houses, can produce catchy pop-songs and are mostl...
Never the Twain
30 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"The GDR's national team - so notorious for choking when it counted - managed to qualify for a World Cup for the only time in their history. It was, o...
After the Earthquake
23 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"Many of those parents who did arrive with their children were carrying Geiger counters. Before each match, they would hastily walk over the pitch to ...