Moving the goalposts

For those wanting to escape the primary-colour visual explosion accompanying the current Fifa World Cup, the pilot issue of The Green ‘soccer journal’ offers welcome respite.

The journal avoids the ‘gossip culture, questionable banter, puns and predictable nature’ of other football publications, says Towle. ‘Ultimately, The Green strives for objectivity,’ he says. ‘So rather than force our opinion upon our readers, we hope to provide an elegant, balanced and posed alternative to some of the brash reporting typically associated with the sport. Rather than shouting, The Green speaks.’

And the design reflects that. Printed on a heavy, uncoated paper, the pilot issue includes an article on Bryan Ferry by The Guardian chief sports writer Richard Williams and one on Portsmouth FC über-fan John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood, for example.

Towle and Roper – who are lifelong Birmingham City and Derby County fans respectively – are hoping to turn The Green into a commercial venture to ensure quality of imagery and writing.

They are expecting to tweak some of the design elements for the September launch issue, but by the look and feel of Issue Zero, this is a very beautiful publication indeed for the beautiful game.