9
The Idea
The idea is to create a non-league football publication. At the moment I am going about this by creating and distributing my own fanzine at my local club. I hope to develop the standard and sophistication of this fanzine over the project, issue by issue as I learn more and gain more feedback.
The first association football fanzine is regarded as being Foul, a publica-tion that ran between 1972 and 1976. In the UK, most Premier League or Football League football clubs have one or more fanzines which supple-ment, oppose and complement the club’s official magazine or matchday programme. A reasonably priced ‘zine has a guaranteed audience, as is the culture of passion in being a football fan. In 1985 the emergent When Satur-day Comes (a fanzine without a spe-cific club focus that was subsequently launched as a mainstream magazine) promoted a ‘fanzine movement’ that gave birth to many more club titles during the late 80s which was some-thing of a glory period for fanzines.
FANZONEUNOFFICIAL MATCHDAY literature
ISSUE 1
BHTFC FANZINE. HAVE YOUR SAY.EMAIL:[email protected]
WITH ANY COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS YOU WOULD LIKE
AIRED(ANONYMITY RESPECTED)
“I THINK THE LADS HAVE DONE WELL SO FAR, WERE STILL PUSHING FOR THE PLAY OFFS AND THAT WAS THE ASK AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON”
“EVRYONES BEEN GREAT SO FAR THIS SEASON. THE FANS, THE PLAYERS, THE MANAGEMENT, LETS JUST HOPE WE CAN KEEP IT UP AND PUSH TILL THE END”
“AS A GOALKEEPER I HAVE TO TAKE A LOT OF STICK FROM THE AWAY CROWDS, SO ITS NICE TO HAVE A GOOD SET OF SUPPORTERS TO FOLLOW US AWAY. HOPEFULLY WE CAN GIVE THEM SOMETHINMG TO CHEER ABOUT AT THE END OF THE SEASON”
“IVE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST 10 YEARS NOW AND IVE NEVER FELT THIS MUCH EXPECTATION ON A BURGESS HILL TEAM AND THAT HAS TO BE A POSITIVE”
“IT ALWAYS SUPRISES ME HOW MANY PEOPLE TRAVEL TO OUR AWAY GAMES AND IT ALWAYS GIVES ME AN EX-TRA INSENTIVE TO DO WELL”
“I LOVE PLAYING AT LAYLANDS PARK WHEN WE HAVE A BIG CROWD, US AS PLAYERS REALLY FEEL THE DIFFER-ENCE ON THE PITCH”
“IVE BEEN IN AND OUT WITH INJURIES THIS SEASON SO ITS NOT BEEN THE BEST, BUT EVERY TIME IM HAD TO WATCH FROM THE STANDS EVERYONES BEEN REAL-LY KIND AND SUPPORTIVE”
“AS A NEW PLAYER YOU NEVER KNOW HOW THE FANS WILL TAKE TO YOU, BUT LUCKILY FOR ME EVERYTHIM-GS BEEN GREAT”
“THIS IS MY SECOND SPELL WITH THE HILLIANS AND I CAN REALLY FEEL A DIFFERENCE AROUND THE PLACE SINCE THE LAST TIME I WAS HERE AND I MEAN THAT IN A GOOD WAY”
“COMING DOWN FROM LEAGUE 2 THE CROWDS ARE OB-VIOUSLY SMALLER BUT THE PASSION IS STILL HERE AND THAT REALLY SURPRISED ME”
A problem I had with my first issue was the content. A fanzine is supposed to speak to the fans, and being a player of the club I was not sure of their feelings or views. I decided to use my connec-tions to the players as an advantage and asked them to express their feel-ings towards the supporters and the season so far. This was purely to create some content for my first issue.
I set up a ‘Live’ account [email protected] as a way that readers/supporters could contact me and give me feedback on the fanzine as well as their views on the club, results and matches. This was a lot more successful than I was expecting and I received a large re-sponse with 26 emails, and with only 50 zines distributed that is a good return.
Group Feedback
The feedback from the group was positive but they felt I needed to have more of a light hearted approach and give the readers more information they would be interested in, such as match reports, player information and just general views and opinions.
FANZONEUNOFFICIAL MATCHDAY literature
ISSUE 2
BHTFC FANZINE. HAVE YOUR SAY.EMAIL:[email protected] WITH ANY COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS
AND QUESTIONS YOU WOULD LIKE AIRED
(ANONYMITY RESPECTED)
email:[email protected]
sussex senior cup
bhtfc 1-1 horsham town2-2 (aet)
replay to be played
Sometimes you just have to have blind optimism!
Harps out for rest of season?
moans and groans
changingroom stories
hillian spies a big thank you!
The second issue was a lot better and because of the feedback and informa-tion I had received I could fill the issue with views questions and match reports from the fans themselves. I was very pleased with the development. For this issue I decided to ask for a donation, I only asked for a donation as it was only the second addition and it was still more important to get people to read every issue rather than be put off by the price, however I would like to have some return on the printing costs etc.
A point that was brought up in the feed-back session with the group was that it would be a good idea to have a number that people could text during matches.
What Next I am going to carry on with the fanzines for every home game and hopefully develop them over time. I also have a work placement coming up with ‘Four four two’ magazine which I hope will help with my understanding and the development of the zines. my intention is to reach a stage where the publica-tion is more like a professional looking magazine rather than a small fanzine.
