Since George Best first raised a glass and posed for the cameras, the fortunes of football and the media have appeared inextricably linked, not just because of their symbiotic relationship but because of their mutual decline. As one struggles for cash, the other drowns in the stuff.
So it was with interest that I downloaded the launch edition of a new quarterly football publication called The Blizzard. Destined for print, apparently, the first edition is digital only.
My first thought was that if I was to launch a new publication today it certainly wouldn't be about football, a sport being put to the sword by its own over-exposure - unless I was in some kind of Brewster's Millions scenario.
But from the outset it's clear The Blizzard is intent on doing things very differently, not least because it is wilfully ignoring notions of how football is currently covered in the 21st century media. It seems intent on engaging a particular, more thoughtful niche of football fans who may have long sinced shunned much of the generally poor coverage of the sport in the mainstream media.
Jonathan Wilson, editor of The Blizzard and author of Behind The Curtain and Inverting the Pyramid, said of his thinking behind the launch:
"I'd been frustrated for some time by the constraints of the mainstream media and in various press-rooms and bars across the world, I'd come to realise I wasn't the only one who felt journalism as a whole was missing something, that there should be space for more in-depth pieces. Was there a way, I wondered, to accommodate articles of several thousand words? Could we do something that was neither magazine nor book..."
And The Blizzard certainly has depth at 184 pages. Issue Zero - a trial digital pilot edition - boasts 25 articles, essays, features and one token interview, many of which run to well over a thousand words. Its website also makes clear that it is keen to distance itself from the kind of 'news' reporting which recently so tarnished even the reputation of The Guardian's sports desk:
"With newspapers determined to prove they have access bloggers don't, the lust for quotes, no matter how banal, and the desire for "news", which often means nothing more than "a rumour that can't instantly be disproved", has overwhelmed all else, and it's getting worse.
There are none of the spoonfed puff-pieces which pass for sports coverage in the papers and football magazines, arranged and orchestrated by the PR departments of energy drinks manufacturers or sportswear brands in which overpaid, overrated footballers are asked open-goal questions about how great their fans are, or how much they want to win the league, the derby or their next match, or why they support a particular initiative being run by said big brand.
In fact, The Blizzard has acknowledged that in search of insight and interest for the intelligent football fan the quest should probably neither start, nor end with players, past or present. Instead they have enlisted a who's who of lauded football writers whose best work to date has existed predominantly in volumes of football writing devoured by fans who've long suspected the world game carries a richer cultural and social significance than the back pages and supplements of their weekend papers let on.
Some of the articles in The Blizzard are fairly eclectic, esoteric, self-indulgent in places - no doubt "wanky" if you asked many a football fan. But they are also very well written and thought-provoking.
For example, the excellent Simon Kuper (author of Football Against the Enemy and Ajax, The Dutch and the War among others), never one to duck theories on football's wider relevance, serves up an examination of the decaying identity of Dutch football and charts its decline against the crumbling notion of famed Dutch liberalism. A rise of ugly football (pictured right: Nigel De Jong tries to kill Spain's Xavi Alonso in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final), he suggests may be inextricably linked to a rise of ugly politics.
In terms of look and feel, The Blizzard looks brilliant on an iPad - simply navigating the online version, rather than a dedicated app - and when imported into iBooks it works like a dream. This should sound a major clue to the publishers as to how they will find a longevity and a business model befitting their ambitions.
There is no doubting there is an audience for this kind of writing and quarterly volumes feel about right in terms of keeping the writing fresh. A 'pay what you think it's worth' subscription model is hopefully a gimmick which doesn't come back to haunt them and could even prove a money-spinner given football's total lack of perspective where pound signs are concerned. If Fernando Torres is worth £50m then The Blizzard is worth at least a tenner (though I confess I only paid £3 for the pilot edition, I will pay more for June's Issue 1).
There is also a clear sense the people behind The Blizzard are doing it for love first, financial gain second - or possibly even a distant third. Wilson said:
"The priority is the product rather than profit, so we will not go chasing readers; the aim, rather, is to remain true to our ethos and to provide an alternative to that which already exists."
However, there's no shying away from the fact that any new media launch is fraught with risk. A final factor which unites football and the media remains the risk of career ending injury. The likes of Marco Van Basten and Matthias Sammer will attest to the fact that even unrivalled quality is no guarantee of longevity.
I wish the team behind The Blizzard the very best of luck.
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