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STAND: Against Modern Football
Sick of owners leveraging your club with debt? What about changing your team's colours? Then this new fanzine put together by a collective of Sabotage writers could be right up your street...
Do you find yourself becoming increasingly disgruntled and annoyed by the shape of modern football? Are you sick of, what was once the working man’s game, being systematically turned into a business, with a blatant disregard for the fans who formed the traditions that made it so great? Should Cardiff City be blue, not red? And would you prefer it if Jim White never appeared on your television screen, bellowing ‘SKY SOURCES CLAIM’, ever again? You’re not alone.
Against Modern Football, as a movement has been gathering support on the continent for some years; a quick Google search will turn up a wonderful array of cheery looking European gentleman, faces obscured, usually brandishing a flare, under a variety of banners, all which carry the same sentiment. Whether it be “No Al Calcio Moderno”, “Contre Le Football Moderne” or “Mot Den Moderna Fotbollen” it doesn’t really matter, fans are crying out for a change, and they’re organising, rapidly and effectively.
So, how about in Britain? Whilst Rangers go to the wall, Manchester United move their money to the Cayman Islands and Cardiff prepare for a season in red; what are British football fans doing?
As with everything, there’s some good moaning going on in cyberspace; any day of the week you can search #AgainstModernFootball on Twitter and turn up someone bemoaning the state of our game. There has been more proactive protest as well, at Liverpool’s ousting of Tom Hicks and George Gilette, Manchester United’s protests against the Glazer’s and Blackburn Rovers’ rallying against the Venkys; there has been representation from a core, determined for widespread changes in the modern game.
Would you prefer it if Jim White never appeared on your television screen, bellowing ‘SKY SOURCES CLAIM’, ever again?
The UK, however, is still lacking the direction and indeed the ambition of our European counterparts. This is where STAND comes in.
STAND is a new fanzine, representing British football fans who are sick of the modern game and are willing to do something about it. Regardless of allegiances and rivalry, STAND will bring together football fans and provide them with a unified voice, a pooling of resources, and a tangible product to rest their beer on in the pub.
The printed press has had somewhat of a revival recently, showing that in the modern age printed media is still relevant. Not only that, but there is a wealth of writing, photography and illustration out there that deserves to be on paper, not just on a webpage that soon gets lost. The fanzines of the 80s helped highlight many issues of concern in that period, so why can’t STAND do the same today for fans in Britain, but also across Europe.
Issue one of STAND will be available on the first weekend of the upcoming season from standamf.tumblr.com and will contain a variety of articles about the plight of modern football by brilliant writers, some of whom you may already know.
Click here to follow @StandAMF on Twitter
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COMMENTS
Great stuff - keep up the good work! Let's be the fans who have the balls to say that The Premiership has no clothes and is a sham!!!!!!
Vive la revolution Wycombe Wanderers (Division 4) have just become a fans owned club
You want to make a stand against modern football? Don't subscribe to Sky, don't go to Premiership matches and don't buy the merchandise. The money men have made billions out of the suckers who do.
I agree with you. This piece http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/how-football-is-being-rebranded/ was meant to be a satirical take on 'Brand Soccer' but sadly people took it seriously
i hope its a great success, totally agree with Jimmy C its time to end McFootball
Couldn't agree more folks but I fear we're pissing in the wind. Even though I'm Leeds I've got great respect for FCUM and I wish our lot would do the same - and everyone else for that matter - but I've got to the stage where I don't recognise football, sorry, 'soccer' anymore and my attitude is bollocks to the lot of 'em, I'll spend my money and time elsewhere.
Kill anyone that uses "brand" and not "club".
football is just for wankers now! just look at chelsea and there out an out twat fans who knew fuck all about football pre 2003 for me cunts like abramovich shithead americans like the glazers and fsg and clueless fucking sheiks need fucking right off bring back the likes of peter swales (alright maybe not him) anyday than these fucking parasites!
For the benefit of that clueless whelk above rossco. 1983..Chelsea..3rd largest away support in the Football League. Now fuck off back to the rest of the clueless divs on rivals.net...
Man United. Liverpool. West Ham. Spurs. Sunderland. Man City. 3rd largest away following? Really?
Really...
Evidence?
David Lacey, Guardian football correspondent 13.24 in this clip for one.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rp1h8-tdxE Add in Chelsea's biggest post war attendances were before RA's arrival, and occupying 4 of the top 10 records for attendances in English football. The true sign of a whopper will be hearing the age old gloryhunters mantra aimed at Chelsea fans in recent years..
You had a decent away following but no way did you take more away than any of the clubs I mentioned. Maybe the 3rd biggest away following in London.
As I said, where's the proof? Talking of 1983, does the figure 12,672 mean anything?
Wee Pat was not available for comment
Good stuff - hopefully it will not be too much a forum for nostalgic blokes like myself to grumble and moan at. In Spain the second "Trofeo Against Modern Football" takes place this Friday - CAP Ciudad de Murcia vs Cartagena FC - two clubs with a history of being beaten up by modern football business. - If I'm allowed, there is a little of the history here: http://grumpyoldfan.net/?p=127
Biggest attendance for a British league game - Rangers v C*ltic 118,000 A European Cup game in Britain - C*ltic v Leeds 136,000 Any Cup game in Britain - Aberdeen V Celtic 146,433 And look at the state of Scottish football now, greed and corruption all in the name of ££££
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