On Football Fanzines: A Communication Platform for Czech and Other European Football Fans

The aim of this paper is a description of domestic football fanzine production in comparison with developments abroad. Zines from the scenes of football fans represent a key source for mapping their histories. While fanzine production is not a new topic in international critical literature, in the Czech Republic it has received only limited attention. The majority of football fanzines in the Czech Republic arose in the milieus of specific subcultural groups – football hooligans and ultras. From 1998 to 2008 the nationwide title Football Factory was the key zine surveying the scene, and it provided a kind of general communication platform for Czech football fans. In terms of their direct impact, Czech football fanzines were the products of a limited scene and a limited trend. As such, they remained quite marginal from the standpoint of overall Czech fanzine production.