FourFourTwo

::"This page concerns the UK edition of the magazine, however details about the others can be found further down the page."Infobox Magazine
title = FourFourTwo


image_size = 175px
editor = Hugh Sleight
frequency = Monthly
circulation = 111,406 / month
category = Football
company = Haymarket
firstdate = 1994
country = United Kingdom
language = English
website = [http://fourfourtwo.com/ Official site]
issn = 1355-0276

"FourFourTwo" is a football magazine published by Haymarket. Published monthly, costing £3.99, and at about 164 pages long, it published its 150th edition in February 2007. 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 British Isles and
*15,139 (14%) was overseas.

In 2008, it was [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/swindon_town/7438170.stm announced] that FourFourTwo had entered into a 3-year shirt sponsorship deal with Swindon Town F.C., which will commence in the 2008/09 season.

Columnists

Present

Currently, the following high-profile people are amongst the regular contributors to Four Four Two (UK edition):
*Henry Winter, leading football journalist.
*James Richardson, who famously presented Football Italia, gives his views on Italian football.

Past

Previously, the following high-profile people were amongst the regular contributors to Four Four Two (UK edition):
*Brian Clough, ex-player and manager, up to his death in 2004.
*Bobby Robson, ex-player and manager who briefly replaced Clough.
*Stan Bowles, the ex-QPR 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 2 people every month and gives tips on the 5-a-side game.

Editors

Notable editors of FourFourTwo have included Matt Snow and Hugh Sleight.

Content

The magazine is split up as such:

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.
*Letters to the editor, Hugh Sleight. Every month a "Star Letter" wins a prize.
*"One on One", where readers send in questions which are put directly to either a football player or manager.

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". This is a short article informally interviewing a young star in the making, and has been a female on several occasions. 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 called 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" is another short column listing all the rumours in the Premier League for the time.
*"On the Couch". A psychologist analyses a part of football to find its basis.

Features

Between "Up Front" and "Planet Football", so usually stretching from about page 60 to 125. 'Regular' Features include:
*Extended interviews.
*"And Another Thing...", where 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", where 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.

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" is 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

Turkish Edition

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

Norwegian Edition

In September 2005 the first issue of the Norwegian edition was published. The name was translated literally into Norwegian as Fire Fire To. It combines coverage of the Norwegian domestic leagues with that of the Premiership, which is very popular throughout Scandinavia - in fact Norway has more Premiership football on terrestrial TV than Britain itself.

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.

Korean Edition

In June 2007 the first issue of Korean edition was published, by Korean publishing company MediaWill. The Korean edition contains many domestic articles, usually about half of 190-pages monthly issues.

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

External links

* [http://fourfourtwo.com Official site]
** [http://www.abc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=nav/abc&noc=y Circulation figures]
* [http://www.footballtalentspotter.com FourFourTwo's Talent Spotter]
* [http://www.fourfourtwo.com.tr Turkish edition]
* [http://www.fourfourtwo.net.au/index.aspx Australian edition]
* [http://www.firefireto.no/ Norwegian edition]
* [http://info.fourfourtwo.co.uk UK Subscription Site]