FourFourTwo

FourFourTwo

February, 2011 cover 200th edition, featuring Ryan Giggs and Alan Shearer
Editor	David Hall
Categories	Football
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	90,077 / month
First issue	1994
Company	Haymarket
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English Bulgarian Korean Portuguese Swedish Turkish Indonesian Thai Polish
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 200th edition in February 2011. 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 English football; it has been one of the most popular formations for 11-a-side matches for several decades.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations reports that as of 2011 FourFourTwo had a Total Average Net Circulation Per Issue of 90,077. Of this:

• 75,212 was in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
• 14,865 was overseas.

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

Columnists

Present

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

• James Richardson, who 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.
• Michel Salgado, footballer formerly of Real Madrid and currently playing for Blackburn Rovers.

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.

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.

Content

The magazine is split up as such:

First Section

The following four 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 — David Hall refers to the month gone by and the current month's issue.
• Letters to the Editor– Every month a chosen letter written to the editor appears in the issue and wins a prize.
• One on One — Readers send in questions which are put directly to either a football player or manager.

Upfront

Upfront 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.

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.
• 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.

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.

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.

Other editions

Australian edition

Main article: FourFourTwo (Australia)

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.

Brazilian edition

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

Bulgarian edition

Mark Sterling has signed a contract with Haymarket Media Group. Mark Sterling has thus acquired the exclusive rights to publish FourFourTwo Magazine. The first issue was out on the Bulgarian market in April, 2010, having pre-World Cup information about the England national football team and coach Fabio Capello for its cover story. The first three issues contained extra materials, reviewing the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups respectively. The Bulgarian edition incorporates articles from UK and international, as well as Bulgarian football.

Croatian edition

In October 2010, the first issue of the Croatian edition was published.

Egyptian edition

In June 2010, the first issue of the Egyptian edition was published, by Egyptian publishing company Omedia.

Indonesian edition

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

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.

Malaysian edition

In 2009, Measat publications took over the license of the Malaysian edition, which is also on sale in Singapore. On August 11, 2009, a weekly FourFourTwo TV Show began on affiliated television station, Astro SuperSport, hosted by former ESPN anchor Jason Dasey. There are now three weekly editions: FourFourTwo EPL, FourFourTwo EuroZone and FourFourTwo EuroGoals.

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.

Polish edition

In May 2010, the first issue of the Polish edition will be published by Ginza Media Group.

Swedish edition

In April 2008, the first issue of the Swedish edition was published.

Thai edition

In November 2009, the first issue of the Thai edition was published, by Plus One Media Co., Ltd. In 3rd Day Of The Month For Every Month.

Turkish edition

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

Vietnamese edition

In May 2010, the first issue of the Vietnamese edition was published by Le Media.

External links

• Official site
• Hungarian edition
• FourFourTwo on Twitter
• Turkish edition
• Australian edition
• Swedish edition
• Thai edition
• UK Subscription Site