Tired of reading boring football interviews we decided to interview ourselves! With our first fanzine in seven years for sale outside the ground tomorrow here is some info for new fans who have never heard of us.
1. When did you start the Lewes fc fanzine and is it your own creation?
We started the fanzine season 2007/8 when we were in the National Conference and financial freefall. Other Chris and I met at a Supporters Trust meeting and thought sod it, let’s give it a go. It was supposed to be short-term but is now 17 years old. We originally started to wind up the then comedic manager Kevin Keehan.
2. It is fair to say your output is inconsistent?
The fanzine is a hobby. We’ve done 20 issues, the next one is the first for seven years and in one season we did 6, so yes inconsistent in absolutely fair.
3. What is your understanding of a fanzine and why do you publish one?
A fanzine is there to be loved and loathed. It is like a very low grade “Have I Got News For You”. Ruffle some feathers, highlight inconsistencies and hypocrisy in a satirical and humorous way. When we became community owned, shall we say we wished to highlight how our principles of community ownership, ratified in our constitution, disagreed with those of the leadership
4. Do people like it?
It is a dictionary definition of Marmite. Some fans love it and we are delighted they do. Some do not, and certainly the club leadership do not, but do we care?
5. If there is one article in the upcoming fanzine fans should read, what one is it?
Oh definitely ‘Crouching Tiger’. The Tracey Crouch reports basically says what the fanzine has always said, that Lewes FC is very badly run and totally vindicates our stance for the last 17 years. The article evolved from a blog I wrote and although it has not translated to the fanzine aesthetically very well, the points it makes are so important.
6. There are some quirky characters in past and present fanzines – where do they come from?
Mainly from the Kings Head, Southover, after a large number of beers and a lot of unintelligible discussions. All revealed the next day, as we write them down at the time before they drift off in an alcoholic haze.
7. Do you frequently watch home and away matches for both the men and women’s team?
Ha ha. Very rarely. Look I was a regular supporter long before 95% of the current leadership even went to the Pan and I will be a regular supporter again long after many fans and leadership lose interest and bugger off, as they did last time when the club ran out of money. Football is a passion and mine is struggling at the moment. It’s not a boycott, I still go occasionally but attendance is sadly not a priority these days. I write a lot of the fanzine so I still care. I went to Selhurst Park to nearly every home game for 15 years, but one in the last 20 years, but still avidly follow what goes on at the Palace. I’m Palace and Lewes until I die.
8. What are the best and worst parts of Lewes fc in your mind?
Best parts of the club will always be the fans. Lewes FC has always had brilliant fans. I have to say I am incredibly impressed with the Supporters Club.
Worst parts, where to start. Let us just say the failure of successive boards to grasp the basics of fan and community ownership in a town where the community and volunteers are capable of staging one of the greatest festivals in the world, Bonfire, and couldn’t be a better match for community ownership. Not utilising that resource and the affluence of the town is just reckless stupidity. It is like choosing between good and bad, and choosing bad. It is as simple as that.
9. You are quite critical of the football club in your fanzines, is this a fair statement?
When the fanzine is not critical it will be because we are being run properly. Can’t wait for that. We really enjoy doing the fanzine but we literally do it just to let the leadership know we have got our eye on them and will hold them to account. In many ways I feel we hold the club to account on behalf of the town.
10. Would you ever join the board?
The board works on the principle of collective responsibility so the majority view wins. I could never work with people who do not do things properly in the interests of fan and community ownership; over the last 15 years, especially the last few, there have been too many on the board who are simply not qualified to safely protect the club for the town of Lewes and have no idea what it is all about. If the board was full of people devoted to building the club as was always intended through the ideology of our constitution I’d consider joining. I have offered to give up substantial time to help the club in the past.
11. If you had one message for the Board for the remainder of the 2023/2024 season, what would it be?
Simple, prepare for the forthcoming financial meltdown by embracing the true principles of fan and community ownership set out in our constitution and embracing the town, supporters and membership. Are you getting where I am coming from here? Begin operating within our own means and let the Lewes family grow the club. Embrace the spirit of Lewes and Bonfire, and the funding and volunteers will queue up.
12. Favourite moment?
Football match-Apologies for inaccuracies, nearly 20 years ago we played Dagenham or Redbridge or Dagenham and Redbridge. We went 0-4 down but grabbed a consolation before half time. We went ballistic when our fifth went in and won 5-4. It wasn’t so much the score but that we all had a feeling when we got our consolation goal before half time that at 1-4 we would go on to win. It was a bit of a collective magic karma, really eerie and unforgettable.
General- Lewes V Bognor nearly 20 years ago as well. Lewes players squared up to a small section of racist Bognor fans and Wattsy (Steve Watts) steaming down the Philcox to break it up. It was comedic, brave and helped stop a really ugly escalation of the situation into violence. By the way, loads of Bognor fans were keen to disassociate themselves from a handful of morons.
13. Is the fanzine woke?
We are left wing, feminists and awake to the heart breaking struggles of young people navigating social media and modern life. Woke? no.. Sympathetic? Yes.
14. Thing you have enjoyed the most.
The fanzine being praised by one of the top football writers in Britain of the last 25 years meant a lot.
Other Chris was 15 when we started the fanzine and watching him grow up and become a lifelong friend was not something I expected when we sat in the pub 17 years ago and thought on a whim that a fanzine might be a good idea. Chris and I are a great team.
15. Do Fan/Community owned clubs work?
On the whole no. As I alluded to above, Lewes CFC should. The problem is communicty owned clubs are not regulated properly, and they rely on goodwill. At the moment they are like the Wild West and very primitive, and a wasted opportunity in the case of Lewes, with the leadership doing what the leadership wants to do irrespective of our guiding principles. What Lewes FC have been doing has bugger all to do with community ownership for Lewes. A regulatory body needs to set up to make community boards enact the principles of their constitution which is basically a brilliant business plan for a successful community club. The current set up simply allows for unaccountable poor practices and bad financial management.
16. Aren’t paper fanzines old hat?
They are, yes, but they are traditional and as with all modern media, a mix of the old and new has the best cut through. During the last 7 years of inactivity we have been writing blogs and the Right of Fans blogs are sometimes read by more that ten times the number of people who attend the Lewes FC Town Hall Meetings as the content is fresh, genuine and interesting. So our cut through is actually pretty impressive. Even if I say so myself.
17. Is it all doom and gloom?
Not at all, the opposite in fact. The forthcoming collapse in various income streams can be used to build the club on proper foundations. It will mean steps backwards but we need to bring the huge talent and resources Lewes offers in from the cold and drop all ridiculous posturing and get back to basics. However, make no mistake, handled badly the club is in deep trouble unless the board step up and embrace change. You know there are lots of highly talented people that will come in and help the club when the current circus moves on. They stay clear as why devote time and energy to something that is not fit for purpose
The Rights of Fans. 