The fans keeping British football fanzine culture alive Social media, fan forums, rolling 24/7 sports news. Football fans have never had more information and gossip at their fingertips. So the […]

Social media, fan forums, rolling 24/7 sports news. Football fans have never had more information and gossip at their fingertips.

So the fanzine may seem like an archaic format. In days gone by, dedicated fans would work tirelessly to print their work on a shoestring budget, before selling it themselves outside the grounds.

This may read like an obituary, but it’s not. In British football there is still a fanzine culture, and some are managing to thrive in the digital age.

Four fanzine editors spoke to i about what they do, and why do it.

Andy Mitten has edited Manchester United fanzine ‘United We Stand’ since 1989

Like many fanzines around the time, United We Stand’s origin story began in the 1980s, when football fans felt as though they were second-class citizens.

“I was an angry 15-year-old United fan in Manchester who felt that that football fans didn’t have a voice,” Mitten says. “I was paying a fortune to stand on decaying terraces at places like the City Ground in Nottingham where you could hardly see the pitch for floodlights, pylons and fences.

“United fans who are only interested in transfers might be baffled by it all, but our readers get what we do and they’re very loyal” Andy Mitten

“Decisions were being made on my behalf where we had no voice and were all considered hooligans. The government wanted to bring in an ID card for football fans, there was the disaster at Hillsborough and the Taylor report which followed.

“The demographics of football were changing by the year. I can vividly remember the summer of 1990 when millions of middle class people were seduced by football after the Italia’90 World Cup and Pavarotti singing.

“I don’t blame them, it was brilliant.”

Mitten calls the the early days of fanzine culture “vibrant”. Almost every club had one, and they would swap copies with everyone from Newport County to Manchester City.

New United We Stand now on sale and available to download. In the middle is Harry, 15 and selling for the first time pic.twitter.com/1CbXagzCjf — Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) April 30, 2017

“I loved fanzines, loved the feel and authenticity of them. I’d cry with laughter at stories about Hull fans in ‘Hull, Hell and Happiness’ or a cartoon strip about Peter Reid being a monkey who kept climbing the floodlights during training in Newcastle’s ‘The Mag’. The actual games at these clubs were of no consequence to me.

“I’d go to games as a kid and meet these fanzine people and found that we had much in common. Or I’d meet men three times my age who would moan and say they’d had enough of modern football and it was their last season. They said the same thing every year for 20 years.

“I loved selling the mag on the street and meeting people who liked what we did. Or didn’t like what we did. I’d sell at away grounds too – though that got more problematic as I got older at places like West Ham and Chelsea.”

UWS has adapted to the changing media landscape, producing a podcast, website and digital editions. And their subscription levels are higher than ever. There have been exclusive and candid interviews with Jose Mourinho, Jamie Carragher and Paul Ince.

Well worth his place on a UWS cover after only two months at MU. Showed it to him and he liked it, though not sure if he's a Partridge fan. pic.twitter.com/vrfvLMkHZ9 — Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) June 9, 2017

They have also had articles written on controversial Irish Republican Martin McGuinness, a United fan, while a gay supporter wrote about his experiences of attending a match in light of some chants which were considered homophobic.

“There’s stuff in there that you can’t find anywhere else. Like Private Eye, we don’t give it away for free. So you can read genuine insight from people we’ve had contact at Manchester United with for 25 years. They trust us, they talk to us – and we don’t misplace that trust.

“And there’s loads more, from a Galician Celta Vigo fan to proper 900-word book reviews and a story of a reader who went on an overnight ferry for the game at Anderlecht where he encountered a midget falling into the buffet on the overnight ferry from Hull.

“United fans who are only interested in transfers might be baffled by it all, but our readers get what we do and they’re very loyal. We see them face-to-face in real life, we cherish and protect the community of proper United fans.”

Andy Mitten is a freelance football writer who writes for a variety of titles and is an author of 11 books. United We Stand is online and on Twitter.

Paul O’Dowd is co-editor of Leeds United fanzine ‘The Square Ball’, founded in 1989

The Square Ball took inspiration from the post-punk scene of the 1980s, which had a burgeoning fanzine culture of its own. A football equivalent gave fans a voice to counteract the “stereotypical view of the average football fan”.

“Fanzines captured the terrace humour not found in official programmes or dedicated football magazines” Paul O’Dowd

In the nascent period Leeds fans had more choice, including an anti-Nazi fanzine which coincided with the emergence of a small National Front presence at the ground.

“Leeds fans had a pretty bad reputation to say the least,” explains O’Dowd. “Yet TSB showed that an articulate and productive element of the fanbase was prepared to redress the negative press.

“Like the Punk mags, most fanzines were crude in both design and layout but some raised the bar.

“Fanzines captured the terrace humour not found in official programmes or dedicated football magazines. It saw football from their point of view and it talked their (albeit adult-themed) language.”

“Fanzines not only showed that there was an alternative to the National Front literature that was being peddled at the time, but that alternative was embraced and encouraged.”

In the face of the internet, rather than streamlining, TSB has grown from a 28-page A5 format to a mammoth 80-page full colour monthly publication, complete with captivating illustrations.

“The need for that independent view – and scrutiny of unscrupulous owners – is as important as ever” Paul O’Dowd

“What we’ve found since we took over The Square Ball in 2009 is that fans do want that paper fanzine to read at matches – and speaking with guys who produce other teams’ fanzines, they also find they are filling a void left by online forums and bloggers.

“Our sales gave increased year on year. Those extra sales mean we can make TSB bigger and better whilst keeping our cover price down.”

TSB has embraced social media and the internet to complement their fanzine, reaching a wider audience. With an online presence they have been able to work in both worlds, promoting merchandise and attracting new contributors.

“More and more fanzines are emerging as the printed option is now back in fashion,” says O’Dowd. “It may change again but fanzines will always adapt as the need for that independent view – and scrutiny of unscrupulous owners – becomes as important as ever.”

The Square Ball is online at www.thesquareball.net and on Twitter @TheSquareBall

Sandy Armour has been editor of the ‘Killie Hippo’ since 2000

The wonderfully named Killie Hippo was late to the fanzine party, arriving in 2000. But it still remains to this day, one of very few regular Scottish football fanzines, with issue 171 released at the season’s end.

It came into being to fill the void after two fanzines, Killie Ken and Paper Roses, ceased.

“I do think that there is still a hardcore of fans who are ‘old school’ and they don’t like to see the game being sanitised too much” Sandy Armour

“I had just bought my first computer and wanted to try and justify its purchase,” laughs Armour. “I remember Motherwell had something like four on the go at the same time and I thought that Killie needed to have one immediately.

“It wasn’t easy for a thick Killie lad who had scraped a C in his English O Level to write a fanzine, but off we went and incredibly we are still here 17 years later.”

Fanzines have often had brilliantly clever names. Some are straightforward, some are evocative, some have an interesting or complex back story. Others are self-deprecating.

So why the Killie Hippo? “Simply because I’m a fat bastard with an uncanny resemblance to a water horse,” explains Armour drily.

Look our for an issue of the Hippo next season where every penny received will be donated to Trust in Killie #wearekillie — Sandy Armour (@killiehippo) May 25, 2017

Fanzines found their place when fans needed a voice, and with money and politics at play, the elite game is becoming further removed from communities than ever. So is the fanzine’s time returning?

“I think the whole culture of football has changed in the last 20 years and it is hard to say that football is still the working man’s game, especially in the English Premier League,” says Armour.

“I think that is why supporters trusts and community owned clubs are on the up as real fans have suffered at the hands of parasites who want football clubs as a play-thing or to line their own pockets.

He adds: “I do think that there is still a hardcore of fans who are ‘old school’ and they don’t like to see the game being sanitised too much.

“A fanzine is a throwback to the old terracing, tribal rivalry and hopefully we still give the fans a platform to air their views.”

Sandy Armour and Killie Hippo can be found on Twitter @killiehippo

Glen Wilson is editor of Doncaster Rovers fanzine ‘popular STAND’

Continuing a familiar theme, popular STAND was born out of frustration in 1998. Doncaster Rovers were on the precipice under controversial benefactor Ken Richardson.

“The original editor, Liam Clayton, set up popular STAND because he thought the other fanzines that were around were being too easy on the club’s owners and its plight,” Wilson explains.

“A fanzine isn’t constrained by this – it can say what it wants, question what it wants, ask what it wants” Glen Wilson

“As such, popular STAND was born to give a much needed collective mouthpiece against those seemingly intent on driving our club out of existence.

“In Doncaster at that time, these voices were going unheard pretty much everywhere else. The fanzine gave a platform for us to tell it like it was, with no holds barred.”

As editor, Wilson admits that they’ve not “adapted a great deal” but are “providing a platform for considered, thoughtful opinion on our club, written by fans, written well, and bookended by the sort of tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating humour that is synonymous with watching our team”.

There is still an old-school feel to popular STAND – black and white costing only £1 – while proceeds from sales are given to local causes.

A post shared by popular STAND (@popularstand) on May 8, 2016 at 3:37am PDT

The fanzine prides itself on forgoing the “who-can-shout-the-loudest mentality of forums” for a “more considered take”.

“So much of football these days, particularly its coverage, is painfully corporate and staid,” says Wilson.

“A fanzine isn’t constrained by this – it can say what it wants, question what it wants, ask what it wants – it’s the discussions you and your friends have as you watch the game, articulated on a page without agenda. For me, it’s a welcome gap in the noise.

“Is there a culture around that? I’m not sure. It’s hard to feel at the heart of a culture when you’re standing in the pissing December rain in a car park trying to sell your last few copies, whilst away fans chuck insults at you.”