FourFourTwo

Editor	Hugh Sleight
Categories	Football
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	111,406 / month
First issue	1994
Company	Haymarket
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English Korean Portuguese Swedish Turkish Indonesian Thai
Website	Official site
ISSN	1355-0276

FourFourTwo is a football magazine published by Haymarket. Published monthly, costing £4.50, and at about 164 pages long, it published its 150th edition in February 2007 and it had its 15th birthday edition in July 2009. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4-4-2, which is considered to be a basic, trustworthy and standard formation in British football; it is almost certainly the most popular formation for 11-a-side matches.

An Audit Bureau of Circulations report for the first half of the year 2006 showed that the magazine's circulation had increased by 18% when compared to the same figures for the previous year. It had a Total Average Net Circulation Per Issue of 111,406. Of this:

• 96,267 (86%) was in the UK & Ireland and
• 15,139 (14%) was overseas.

In 2008, it was announced that FourFourTwo had entered into a three-year shirt sponsorship deal with Swindon Town, which will commence in the 2008–09 season.

Contents 1 Columnists 1.1 Present 1.2 Past 2 Editors 3 Content 3.1 First Section 3.2 Up Front 3.3 Features 3.4 Planet Football 3.5 Elsewhere in the magazine 4 Other editions 4.1 Swedish Edition 4.2 Nigerian edition 4.3 Turkish edition 4.4 Australian edition 4.5 Korean edition 4.6 Brazilian edition 4.7 Malaysian edition 4.8 Indonesian edition 4.9 Thai edition 5 External links

[edit] Columnists

[edit] Present

Currently, the following high-profile people are amongst the regular contributors to FourFourTwo (UK edition):

• James Richardson, who famously presented Football Italia, who used to give his views on Italian football before being replaced.
• Jonathan Wilson, football journalist and author of Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics.

[edit] Past

Previously, the following high-profile people were amongst the regular contributors to FourFourTwo (UK edition):

• Henry Winter — Leading football journalist.
• Brian Clough — Ex-player and manager, up to his death in 2004.
• Bobby Robson — Ex-player and manager who briefly replaced Brian Clough.
• Stan Bowles — The ex-Queens Park Rangers and England player, who wrote an anecdotal column.
• Robbie Savage — The former Wales midfielder, who wrote about the game from a current Premiership footballer's perspective.
• Sam Allardyce — Ex-Newcastle United manager who answered readers' questions.
• David Platt — who wrote columns discussing tactics for particular matches or teams.
• Arsène Wenger — Arsenal manager. FourFourTwo's 5-a-side "guru" who is questioned by two people every month and gives tips on the 5-a-side game.

[edit] Editors

Notable editors of FourFourTwo have included Mat Snow and Hugh Sleight. The founding editor was Karen Buchanan, now a journalist and presenter with BBC Radio Norfolk.

[edit] Content

The magazine is split up as such:

[edit] First Section

The following three features are always in the first part of the magazine:

• Magic Moment or FourFourTwo Moment — A usually-sponsored feature on the first page showing a moment of triumph from the past month, for example, Northern Ireland beating Spain 3-2.
• A Word from the Editor — Hugh Sleight refers to the month gone by and the current month's issue.
• Letters to the Editor, Hugh Sleight — Every month a chosen letter written to the editor appears in the issue and wins a prize.
• One on One — Rreaders send in questions which are put directly to either a football player or manager.

[edit] Up Front

Up Front runs from about page 25 to 60 of the magazine, consisting of shorter interviews and regular features. It is often more comedy based than the rest of the magazine. Amongst others, it contains:

• The Diary — Takes a comedy based look at the latest month in the football world.
• The Boy/Girl's a Bit Special — A short article informally interviewing a young star (male or female) in-the-making. Questions range from "who has had the biggest influence on your game?" to "what car do you own?." Issue one featured an unknown 16-year-old Liverpool youth team player named Michael Owen.
• I'll Tell You This — Transcript of a short, irreverent telephone interview with a well-known football personality, where questions rarely involve football, and often border on the surreal, unless of course the interviewee has a book or other product to promote.
• Reviews — of football related products, predominantly books and video games.
• They Said What?! — A short column of funny, strange or witty quotes from football personalities in the month beforehand.
• The Insider — Another short column listing all the rumours in the Premier League at the present moment.
• On the Couch — A psychologist analyses a part of football to find its basis.
• Ask a Silly Question — Where a footballer or football-related person is asked a selection of odd questions which tend to culminate in still stranger answers.
• You Asking? — Where four present or former footballers answer two questions: one relating to football and the other not.
• The Big Debate — A look at two differing opinions on a controversial footballing issue.

[edit] Features

Between Up Front and Planet Football, so usually stretching from about page 60 to 125."Regular" features include:

• Extended interviews.
• And Another Thing... — Four of a kind (e.g. four disabled fans, four referees, four journalists, four fans supporting West London clubs) are gathered together in a pub and asked to comment on different footballing issues.
• More Than a Game — An in-depth look at one of football's biggest rivalries, often involving deep social and political parameters. A recent example was Fenerbahçe vs Galatasaray
• My Secret Vice — A report on a particular footballer's unusual hobby. A recent example was Reading's American player Marcus Hahnemann, who confirmed he was a petrolhead.
• Sing When You're Winning — One celebrity (although past "specials" have seen multiple English rugby World Cup winners or Cabinet Politicians) talks about their football fandom.
• Action Replay — A retrospective look at a significant, obscure, landmark or forgotten event in football history.
• At the End of the Day — A a footballing personality talks about the defining moments of their career.

[edit] Planet Football

This covers two main areas: UK football other than the Premiership and overseas football. It consists of a number of short interviews, features, and a results service. Among many reports from top-level football leagues across the globe, the section includes a report from James Richardson.

[edit] Elsewhere in the magazine

• My Perfect XI — A football personality's favourite team, often within certain criteria (e.g. players played against, players who have played for Liverpool clubs), normally with one or more substitutes and a manager. The interviewee may name themselves in the team, but often rejects it, instead settling for a place on the bench, or as coach of the team.
• Spine Line Competition — To win a prize, readers can decipher the riddle printed along the magazine's spine line, which always relates to some content in that edition.

[edit] Other editions

[edit] Swedish Edition

In November 2002, the first issue of the Swedish edition was published. In September 2009, issue #50 will be published.

[edit] Nigerian edition

In 2006, the first issue of the Nigerian edition was published. In May 2008, the relaunched edition came on board with the veteran editor Samm Audu as the editor. The senior staff writer is Ikenwa Nnabuogor. It's currently the biggest-selling soccer magazine in West Africa. It also sells in South Africa.

[edit] Turkish edition

In April 2006, the first issue of the Turkish edition was published

[edit] Australian edition

FourFourTwo launched an Australian edition in October 2005, to coincide with new A-League.

The launch publicity ran with the tagline of "It's footy, but not as you know it," a reference to the popularity of Australian rules football and rugby league and the fact that association football is referred to as soccer in Australia. This also referred to the launch slogan of the A-league: "It's football, but not as you know it" — part of the work Football Australia is doing to rebrand and relaunch the game. Further to this, the first edition's frontpage contained the motto "Goodbye Soccer, Hello Football." The launch party was attended by, amongst others, cricketer Ricky Ponting.

[edit] Korean edition

In June 2007, the first issue of the South Korean edition was published, by Korean publishing company MediaWill. The Korean edition contains many articles on domestic football, which normally take up about half of the 190-pages per issue.

The price is W6,800. Although the English edition is imported in Korean market, it costs W16,000 and therefore has a very limited market share.

[edit] Brazilian edition

In 2009, the first issue of the Brazilian edition was published, by Brazilian publishing company Cadiz.

[edit] Malaysian edition

In 2009, Measat publications took over the license of the Malaysian edition. On August 11th 2009, a weekly FourFourTwo TV Show began on affiliated television station, Astro SuperSport, hosted by former ESPN anchor Jason Dasey.

[edit] Indonesian edition

In 2009, the first issue of the Indonesian edition was published, by PT Tunas Bola.

[edit] Thai edition

In 2009, the first issue of the Thai edition was published, by Plus One Media Co., Ltd.

[edit] External links

• Official site
  • Circulation figures
• FourFourTwo's Talent Spotter
• Turkish edition
• Australian edition
• Swedish edition
• Thai edition
• UK Subscription Site
• Analysis of FourFourTwo at Magazine World (University of Winchester Journalism Department) note: navigate from front page of site to teaching materials > journalism now > magazines > magazine directory