Football magazines

Tiber · Aug 16, 2016

As a kid I got the official United magazine and Match. A bit later on I got 4-4-2 and World Soccer Magazine.

I really liked Four Four Two but haven't read it in years. I was in co-op earlier and noticed a copy which looked interesting, was going to buy it until I saw the price and discovered that my instant reaction was "feck that" which is a shame because I really used to like that mag.

I still get the United magazine from time to time (I used to particularly like the McClair Column) but that is more a picture book that anything else.

Does anyone still buy football magazines?

Barca84 · Aug 16, 2016

I get this..

http://www.backpassmagazine.co.uk/

because I'm an old bastard etc etc. It's really well put together and a reminder of the game I grew up watching. I like to read it down the boozer over several pints then come home and thrash the wife with it for not having my tea ready a la 1970s. Happy days.

If tempted to purchase it do be careful when ordering that they get the title right.

ThanksBoss26 · Aug 16, 2016

No, I guess because I can just read most stuff online these days. Still pick up the odd United fanzine though.

Used to love them as a kid; Shoot/Match and the United magazine. Then the MEN Football Pink at weekend. A newspaper rather than a magazine but still a good read.

OnlyTwoDaSilvas · Aug 16, 2016

I have a few hard copies of The Blizzard. They are gorgeously put together, but I still find it hard to justify paying such an amount for a magazine. If you get it on their website, it's 'pay what you want', though the minimum is £6, RRP is £12, but they're an excellent and satisfying read. Aesthetically, they are the best looking magazine, and you can put them on your bookshelf when you're done and they won't look out of place. However, due to the cost, I just download the digital copies of them for a couple of quid each.

I also get the digital copies of Red News, and I get When Saturday Comes now and again.

I used to like FourFourTwo, but after a two year subscription, it got a bit samey.

Jonnymufc · Aug 16, 2016

I really love Four Four Two. The writing is good and their articles are really interesting. I particularly love the stuff they do from abroad and historical stuff (for example they did this article about how Pablo Escobar funded his local team and did loads of charity work...as well as running a massive criminal empire).

Don't ever buy it individually in the shops. Far too pricey. They have loads of subscription deals online. I got a year for £20!

Tiber · Aug 16, 2016

Jonnymufc said:
I really love Four Four Two. The writing is good and their articles are really interesting. I particularly love the stuff they do from abroad and historical stuff (for example they did this article about how Pablo Escobar funded his local team and did loads of charity work...as well as running a massive criminal empire).

Don't ever buy it individually in the shops. Far too pricey. They have loads of subscription deals online. I got a year for £20!

Good post! Just looked on the website and saw you can get 3 mags for £1 don't mind if I do!

Deleted member 101472 · Aug 16, 2016

4-4-2 was absolutely brilliant, actually did a bit of work experience there a long time ago now.

Bought this seasons premier league preview issue to read on a flight and it's not quite as good as I remember , but they always have an obscure article or two in there that seperates it from other magazines .

Adisa · Aug 16, 2016

Used to buy 4-4-2 every month. The Internet has killed this industry

MichaelKorleone · Aug 16, 2016

OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
I have a few hard copies of The Blizzard. They are gorgeously put together, but I still find it hard to justify paying such an amount for a magazine. If you get it on their website, it's 'pay what you want', though the minimum is £6, RRP is £12, but they're an excellent and satisfying read. Aesthetically, they are the best looking magazine, and you can put them on your bookshelf when you're done and they won't look out of place. However, due to the cost, I just download the digital copies of them for a couple of quid each.

Still cheap for a quarterly magazine with nearly 200 pages of quality stuff though?

I subscribed to Blizzard when Jonathan Wilson initially started it at £3 for online copies but due to various reasons I stopped after Issue Twelve. I need to subscribe again as I think it's one of the best around. Advantage with online subscription is that you get access to all the previous issues as well (last time I checked).

Red Ryan · Aug 16, 2016

4-4-2 is not what it was. A third of it is taken up with ads for football boots. The best read is either When Saturday Comes or World Soccer. The Blizzard is too ludicrously priced to be taken seriously. A hipster's football digest if ever there was one.

duffer · Aug 16, 2016

90 Minutes magazine was the best.

MichaelKorleone · Aug 16, 2016

Red Ryan said:
The Blizzard is too ludicrously priced to be taken seriously. A hipster's football digest if ever there was one.

I dunno mate, I see articles like this and feel it's brilliant. But my opinion maybe outdated as I haven't read it in nearly two years and have always subscribed for online editions prior to that.

Red Ryan · Aug 16, 2016

duffer said:
90 Minutes magazine was the best.

Couldn't agree more.

FC Ronaldo · Aug 16, 2016

Shoot!

But seriously, FFT and WSM were the best. The Blizzard is good now.

a_devil_inside · Aug 16, 2016

Not anymore but I used to regularly buy Match, Shoot, Glory Glory Man Utd, and another one which was mostly posters I think (Soccer something?). Used to subscribe to the official United magazine too

Classical Mechanic · Aug 16, 2016

OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
I have a few hard copies of The Blizzard. They are gorgeously put together, but I still find it hard to justify paying such an amount for a magazine. If you get it on their website, it's 'pay what you want', though the minimum is £6, RRP is £12, but they're an excellent and satisfying read. Aesthetically, they are the best looking magazine, and you can put them on your bookshelf when you're done and they won't look out of place. However, due to the cost, I just download the digital copies of them for a couple of quid each.

I also get the digital copies of Red News, and I get When Saturday Comes now and again.

I used to like FourFourTwo, but after a two year subscription, it got a bit samey.

I have a few issues but I tend to find it to be 90% tedious crap. definitely one for the hipsters that like to over intellectualise what is a pretty basic game.

No doubt Pep has every issue.

Tiber · Aug 16, 2016

FC Ronaldo said:
Shoot!

But seriously, FFT and WSM were the best. The Blizzard is good now.

Shoot always seemed like a copy of MAtch to me. Match was genuinely really well put together (for the target age group)

The newer MOTD mag also reminds me of Match

Ghengis · Aug 16, 2016

This brought me back some good memories.
I used to live in sweden as a boy. I remember a particular magazine that was called Goal. My family didnt have it so well put at the time so they wouldnt let me buy it beacuse it was too expensive. Being a creative kid as i was. I went to the store and took a metro newspaper that was free, then i put the magazine in the metro and just walked out. I did that for like 1 year until i was caught

by then my whole room was covered in posters

OnlyTwoDaSilvas · Aug 16, 2016

Classical Mechanic said:
I have a few issues but I tend to find it to be 90% tedious crap. definitely one for the hipsters that like to over intellectualise what is a pretty basic game.

No doubt Pep has every issue.

Some of the early ones were perhaps a little self-indulgent, but I feel it has gotten better with time. Some of the articles are very informative and well researched. That appeals to me more than the FFT style of magazine where you'll have an interview with Leon Osman about what music they like to play in the dressing room before kick off.

Classical Mechanic · Aug 16, 2016

OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Some of the early ones were perhaps a little self-indulgent, but I feel it has gotten better with time. Some of the articles are very informative and well researched. That appeals to me more than the FFT style of magazine where you'll have an interview with Leon Osman about what music they like to play in the dressing room before kick off.

To be honest I had some early issues and found some of the articles to be laughably pretentious. I just read the link you posted and it was fantastic, however. I grew up in the 90s so it was great to have a peak behind what I saw only on the surface back then. Thanks for posting. I might even try a more recent issue now.

OnlyTwoDaSilvas · Aug 16, 2016

Classical Mechanic said:
To be honest I had some early issues and found some of the articles to be laughably pretentious. I just read the link you posted and it was fantastic, however. I grew up in the 90s so it was great to have a peak behind what I saw only on the surface back then. Thanks for posting. I might even try a more recent issue now.

You must be referring to the link @MichaelKorleone posted. I can't take credit for that unfortunately

Jonnymufc · Aug 16, 2016

Red Ryan said:
4-4-2 is not what it was. A third of it is taken up with ads for football boots. The best read is either When Saturday Comes or World Soccer. The Blizzard is too ludicrously priced to be taken seriously. A hipster's football digest if ever there was one.

I don't disagree on the mass of adverts but it's difficult to make money in print media. I still think the content is a good read, really enjoy their features and obscure articles.

thoward · Aug 16, 2016

Buy most issues of Four Four Two, get United We Stand and Red News when I go to Old Trafford, used to get Red Issue before it stopped. Used to get nearly every issue of the United magazine, get World Soccer about once or twice a year. Used to get Shoot and Match a good bit when I was younger.

Four Four Two (good interview with Vidic this month), United We Stand and Four Four Two are particularly good reads.

Dave_MUFC · Aug 23, 2016

Thanks to this thread, I've discovered The Blizzard and am currently on a binge to try and build up a collection of the past books! Ordered 6 and received 3 of them so far, absolutely love the layout and content, and the fact you can get them for only £3 or so used is great!

I keep looking for other copies, but I think I should hold off now until I finish these up. Should keep me busy for the next few months!

(Also managed to blag myself Issue Zero for £6 on eBay, couldn't say no to that

)

Dave_MUFC · Aug 23, 2016

As I was searching around, I've found out that the brilliant These Football Times are following in the footsteps of The Blizzard and starting to release a quarterly magazine/book starting from next month. Anyway, the format seems fascinating, with them focusing on a country for each issue, starting with Argentinan football. Think I might have to follow this one!

http://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/07/20/these-football-times-print-magazine-the-launch/

Red Ryan · Aug 23, 2016

Dave_MUFC said:
As I was searching around, I've found out that the brilliant These Football Times are following in the footsteps of The Blizzard and starting to release a quarterly magazine/book starting from next month. Anyway, the format seems fascinating, with them focusing on a country for each issue, starting with Argentinan football. Think I might have to follow this one!

http://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/07/20/these-football-times-print-magazine-the-launch/

Looked all right until I saw the price... a tenner for a football magazine. Not exactly aimed at the common working man is it?

Dave_MUFC · Aug 23, 2016

Red Ryan said:
Looked all right until I saw the price... a tenner for a football magazine. Not exactly aimed at the common working man is it?

If you've seen The Blizzard, you'll see that they're only really called magazines due to the regular releases. Its essentially a book, in print quality and content. I'd honestly say it's much more cost effective than splashing out £4-£5 on a flimsy magazine packed with adverts!

Red Ryan · Aug 23, 2016

Dave_MUFC said:
If you've seen The Blizzard, you'll see that they're only really called magazines due to the regular releases. Its essentially a book, in print quality and content. I'd honestly say it's much more cost effective than splashing out £4-£5 on a flimsy magazine packed with adverts!

That does change things, I saw some boutique/ hipster football magazine earlier this year that had about 60-70 pages in it with massive pictures on most pages that cost a tenner. To be fair I thought The Blizzard would be the same. How many pages does it have normally if you don't mind me asking?

Dave_MUFC · Aug 23, 2016

Red Ryan said:
That does change things, I saw some boutique/ hipster football magazine earlier this year that had about 60-70 pages in it with massive pictures on most pages that cost a tenner. To be fair I thought The Blizzard would be the same. How many pages does it have normally if you don't mind me asking?

The Blizzard is completely different to what you've described, with very very few photos/pictures in the book and mainly articles and content. Each book is ~180 pages and I've noticed only 2-3 adverts per book. I've already bought 6 issues over the last couple of days and plan to increase that when I finish!

Also, all Blizzard back issues can be had on digital for 1p each, while the 'These Football Times' edition is £3, although I can't stand reading books through a screen, which is why I went for the paper issues. But if you grab the older issues in print form for around £3 used, you can't really go wrong.

If you're interested, here's a sample issue of The Blizzard's first issue, showing the contents and a few sample articles:
https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/_files/IssueOneSample.pdf

Dave_MUFC · Feb 10, 2017

Big bump of an old thread, but just ordered my first copy of When Saturday Comes. Not too pricey, and free delivery online! Writing quality is meant to be reasonably good, so could be a more English-focused variation from the Blizzard books.

Red Ryan · Feb 10, 2017

Dave_MUFC said:
Big bump of an old thread, but just ordered my first copy of When Saturday Comes. Not too pricey, and free delivery online! Writing quality is meant to be reasonably good, so could be a more English-focused variation from the Blizzard books.

When Saturday Comes is a superb read. You won't regret it!

AkaAkuma · Feb 10, 2017

I had about 7 years of world soccer in a cupboard but eventually binned them. Looked on eBay and didn't think the return matched the cupboard space. Was i wrong?

Dave_MUFC · Feb 11, 2017

Red Ryan said:
When Saturday Comes is a superb read. You won't regret it!

If I enjoy the content I will most likely subscribe for the year, only works out about £2.60 per issue, not much at all!

ForeverRoma93 · Oct 29, 2019

Bit of an old thread but started to buy World Soccer Magazine again and find it in a really good, detailed read. Not that keen on FourFourTwo no matter how hard I try :houllier:

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