Football Fanzine Culture

They do have a pop at ALOB for being produced in Leeds…not a great tactic, a lot of fanzines were from miles away simply to give exiles a better update than they might get for Wolves in the Yorkshire Evening Post!

Not one of the greats but a decent enough effort for a 1st issue and with the competition being the classic A Load of Bull, now 18 months old and into their stride it was tough.

It finishes with the fixture list for the season, the one thing I always found useful and fascinating in the match day mag…except there’s no appearances tables etc here, it’s just the bare facts though the attendances are interesting 20,004 at Oldham!!

The shadow you can see on the page here is from the next page 10 due to the low opacity of the poor-quality paper used. (sorry, I worked in the paper industry for 35 years, old habits etc)

Towards the end there is a sure sign that they’d run out of ideas, literally as this article about the season ahead just stops after half a page, this is truly only a 13.5 page fanzine.

There’s a vaguely funny article suggesting most of football’s ills are down to BSE and Bully’s secret injury is pretty good even with the so so copying. I’m beginning to detect the hand of a teenager in the humorous writing here.

The editorial is...were Bernard and Steve Siamese twins? Will the fairer sex send photos? (unlikely) will they be sued? ( likely) & a dreadful joke. Ah the 90s. If they were Siamese twins they’d be the only ones to be editors on our list, I’ll enter it with an asterisk.

The contents page promises much, don’t hold your breath.

Today’s #FanzineoftheDay is curious little thing this, first published in December 1990 BBBBs celebrated Wolves with a lot of reference to mad cow disease or Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE as it was known before the papers got their hands on it.

Batting, bowling, BOSH! Not bad batting at 8 is that.

YouTube video by The Football Stadium Show The Unexpected Non-League Club Jimmy Greaves Played For! (Chelmsford City)

Well, if you do want more there is a superb little video (from 2022?) here. Well worth a subscribe.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xfb...

Great stuff, a non league zine, historical FACTS, two massive stars of yesteryear, God, radio and fish and chips. Social history, food and footy stars, what more could you want!?

Perhaps TBF wasn't famous but Robinsons chip shop on the back cover was and still is..their facebook page reports that they’ve been “serving the finest fish and chips for over 100 years” Much more important that Chelmsford being the birthplace of radio or having 5 zines.

There is also absolute proof that Robbie Garvey (joint player manager at the time) is god.

There is a great little spoof about 1066 and all that with exciting news that our heroes that they are sponsoring the match ball.

The editorial is a roller coaster. Season of consolidation, disappointing & would have been disastrous but for the defence and a list of 29 if onlys! Plus…David Speedie at Crawley? Apparently this happened, Speedie turned out for 8 non-league clubs as his career wound down.

Jimmy Greaves played for the club in the 1976-77 season (20 goals, 38 appearances) In 1977 (& 1983) they were one of the clubs to play in the Anglo Italian cup although they didn't win a game in the competition. JG said playing in the cup was the highlight of his time there..

Today’s #FanzineoftheDay is Chelmsford’s famous 'To Be Frank' issue 11 from 1996. One staple, a brave choice. Remarkably we’ve found reference to 5 (FIVE!) Chelmsford City fanzines, not bad for a club that have only ever been as high as the National League south.

I'm sure the colour version was better and if you spent £4 on this photo in 1996 you'll be sitting on something worth about 30p now, the value of all things fanzine may go up but more than likely than not, will go down #FloodlightFriday

So here is Arsenal's Highbury from issue 72 of The Gooner in 1996. SEE, it's so bad you can hardly pick out the ground, never mind the lights on the stands. To help here is a photo from the first match played under those invisible lights.

As stated, there were many terrible photos in fanzines, none worse that the ubiquitous adverts for aerial shots of grounds. We were going to write a blog about them but that sounds boring so a better use is to occasionally delight you with some of the worst on #FloodlightFriday

Despite now being a (badly hungover) DOUBLE award winning enterprise we've still made time to get a #FloodlightFriday post ready for your delight.

*Warning, may contain terrible photography*

Mate, we’re just a bunch of old blokes laughing about fanzines!!

Absolutely humbled that our team won the Sporting Heritage 2025 volunteer award for the Voice of the Fans exhibition. With thanks to everyone who supported us and @leedslibraries.bsky.social and @britishlibrary.bsky.social for their patronage #SHAwards

Great Fanzine Features of our Time. This week I opened the Cardiff fanzine Thin Blue Line issue 67 from 2008 which covers a story I though must have been a spoof about Hamburg SV opening a cemetery for fans, a cemetery shaped like th…

It's Thursday and that can mean only one thing; a new blog is up. This week we explore features in fanzines, veering wildly from RL brawls to shelves and from winless streaks to fridges via fanzines from Sunday league football and Stourbridge.
footballfanzineculture.blog/2025/11/13/g...

There is a tremendous quote from Stan Bowles about his (very short) career at Carlisle in the 1990 Ayr fanzine, The Honest Truth.
bsky.app/profile/fanz...

The IDEAL Christmas gift for the Sunlun' fan in your life or to be honest anyone interested in old kits, autographs, Esso coin collections, the Roker Park TV gantry and much much more. It really is superb and is available here.
www.conkereditions.co.uk/product/got-...

The post today contained a truly wonderful thing, a copy of the latest @gotnotgot.bsky.social adventure. Got, Not Got Sunderland by Bill Hern is a truly beautiful thing and includes a teeny tiny bit of text from yours truly about the 22 Sunderland fanzines we have traced.

And finally for now there is an exceptional cartoon. Sci fi, satire and brilliant penmanship/ art work all in one…FIFTY PENCE AND WE’RE ONLY HALF WAY THROUGH THIS EDITION!! Chapeau guys, magnificent stuff in only the 7th issue.

There is some tremendous correspondence from readers.