Whose Game Is It Anyway?
'Whose Game Is It Anyway?' charts the genesis of the football fanzine movement and follows two fanzine editors coming to terms with today’s corporate football reality. Both of their fanzines emerged in the wake of one of British football’s darkest years. In the space of a few months that saw 56 killed in a fire at Bradford City, mass brawls between Millwall and Luton fans, and finally the Heysel disaster - it seemed that everything that could go wrong with the game that year did.
Over the following four years the media, police and government alike increasingly vilified fans, equating football fandom with hooliganism and violence. The fan’s response to this demonisation came in early 1986, in the form of fanzines - DIY documents full of grassroots content, often printed at home or after hours on a work photocopier. Publications like ‘Off the Ball’ & ‘When Saturday Comes’ led the way, with disgruntled fans - tired of being portrayed as hooligans and enduring dangerous spectating conditions - rallying others to organise and unite,setting aside tribal differences and sharing experiences. As football clubs become less and less attached to their area and supporters, fanzines show the frustrations and passion that come with dedicating yourself to your club, serving as a unique and indelible supporter’s history.
The fanzine is the love for your club & the game down on paper. They reflect the togetherness, the obsession, the minor detail, the passion that gives the game all it’s value.If we are to galvanise any mass movement against today’s sterilised corporate football climate, where the fan is still so often an after-thought then the values that the fanzine movement created should be at its core.
In addition to the film I held an exhibit of my own collection of football fanzines from the UK in the 1980s & 90s at Ditto Press (http://www.dittopress.co.uk) I also made a zine celebrating the original football zines which you can purchase here: www.eighteen86.com
I post images from my fanzine collection here:
Photos by Jamie Stoker