FourFourTwo. First published in 1994, but I don't remember it until about 96, my Dad would buy it along with the ill-fated Total Football (which was completely inferior too). 90 Minutes was another mag that went reasonably upmarket too, glossy so-to-speak, but died a quick death in reality.
I suppose FourFourTwo was just another visual shift in football culture - and perhaps one that I really like, but the mid-90's was the helix in the demise of fanzines and the working class football fan and the rise in the glossy and the middle class 'footy' attendee.
Anyway, the magazine is still good, but patronising too. In a far tighter football mag market, FFT has had to go down the same route as the others by pandering to the agents and PRs in order to secure a cover star suffciently big enough to draw a big enough readership ... and the latest ABC's show an impressive 110,000+ circulation.
Football magazines are unfashionable within the press industry, not surprsing since their format and style hasn't changed in over 10 years. This, twinned with the sort of readership that doesn't openly welcome radical shifts in typography and layout, means that FFT rarely features in the various awards.
But this week, the mag's Messi cover (one of about 200 they've featured with the twatfaced twirp on the cover respendent in whatever Adidas want to sell that month) was commended in the 'front cover awards' more commonly know as the Maggies. The cover in question is above, a topless Lily Allen montage for Q won the overall prize in which OK!'s Goodey and Tweed wedding cover was also featured.
I suppose FourFourTwo was just another visual shift in football culture - and perhaps one that I really like, but the mid-90's was the helix in the demise of fanzines and the working class football fan and the rise in the glossy and the middle class 'footy' attendee.
Anyway, the magazine is still good, but patronising too. In a far tighter football mag market, FFT has had to go down the same route as the others by pandering to the agents and PRs in order to secure a cover star suffciently big enough to draw a big enough readership ... and the latest ABC's show an impressive 110,000+ circulation.
Football magazines are unfashionable within the press industry, not surprsing since their format and style hasn't changed in over 10 years. This, twinned with the sort of readership that doesn't openly welcome radical shifts in typography and layout, means that FFT rarely features in the various awards.
But this week, the mag's Messi cover (one of about 200 they've featured with the twatfaced twirp on the cover respendent in whatever Adidas want to sell that month) was commended in the 'front cover awards' more commonly know as the Maggies. The cover in question is above, a topless Lily Allen montage for Q won the overall prize in which OK!'s Goodey and Tweed wedding cover was also featured.
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