by Chris Harris
It’s important to say this clearly. I do not write to be liked. I don’t write to win popularity contests. And I don’t write to collect media likes or to be liked.
I write because I care about the club and want to hold it to account and spark a debate, and as people who know me will tell you, I am not someone in the slightest bit interested in ill-informed keyboard loudmouths.
I say this because this article is for them, the people who aggressively and tediously bandy around the same boring old shite about me, who, like bullies, think they are big and tough, harassing and denigrating me, seemingly oblivious to the fact I ignore them because I don’t give a shit what they think.
Because whilst they spread their unformed and uninformed thoughts to 200 regular people or so on Facebook, the majority who think they are jerks or twenty on the fans forum, over Christmas mine were read by nearly a million people in the biggest football magazine in the world. Oh, and my blogs were read in over 100 different countries last year.
The 11 Freunde Interview
To be honest, if anyone had come asking for my opinion on any of my content five years ago, I’d have jumped at the chance. I’d have said yes in a heartbeat. I’d have gone on any podcast, met any journalist, talked to anyone who wanted a quote.
But I find myself in this almost bizarre situation now where, particularly with podcasters, I increasingly turn down the opportunity. And with smaller journalistic enquiries I often just say, “Honestly — read the blogs. It’s all there.”
Six weeks ago I collaborated on an article in the iconic When Saturday Comes magazine, one of 7 national media organisations to contact me in recent months. and I didn’t think it could get much better than that. Then a couple of weeks later, directly on the back of that particular piece, I got a message out of the blue. Someone asked if they could interview me for 11Freunde.
I did what any sane person would do: I googled it.
A German football culture magazine.
My first thought was, I’m not sure I’ve got the time for this, to be honest. I was trying ton finish a novel, I was busy, tired, and a little bit sceptical. I’ve done enough of this now saying the same thing, same old story, it is getting boring.
Eventually I replied, half dismissively, that if they were happy to come round and interview me in my house I’d love to talk to them. I certainly wasn’t going to meet at The Pan and talk to Andreas over a pint. I expected that to end the conversation.
Instead he came back and said, no, no — I’ll come to your house.
Only, would it be okay if I brought a photographer?
I’ll admit I gulped.
Someone from Germany, with a photographer, wanted to interview me and take photographs of me for a magazine I’d barely heard of. And then I properly researched 11Freunde. The magazine’s circulation is around 60,000 to 70,000, but it’s read monthly by roughly 960,000 people, and it’s widely regarded as the biggest football culture magazine in the world.
I couldn’t believe it.
Let’s be honest: I write a few blogs from time to time. I don’t churn them out weekly. I probably write a collection every six to nine months. This isn’t something I “do seriously” in the professional sense. It’s a hobby. A passion. A compulsion, maybe. But it’s not my job.
Andreas came round on the Saturday night. Lovely guy. We spoke for a couple of hours. Turns out he’s into the same music as me. The last quarter of the evening went full punk rock, and we even agreed we might meet up in London one day and go to a gig.
The next day he turned up again, this time with the photographer, and I had to bounce around my house for forty-five minutes while they took photos.
Then it was done.
The article — Mind the Gap — appeared in the December issue. And honestly, I thought it portrayed me a little harshly. I’ve always been vehemently supportive of the Lewes FC women’s side and the whole Equality FC principle, and it was hinted that I was more pro the traditional status quo. Which I’m not. My opposition has never been to the idea, it has always been to how badly it’s been financed and run, and how consistently ordinary supporters are treated like irritants rather than stakeholders.
Besides, football is an opinion forum and this was the view of the writer, and I respect his integrity and viewpoint.
But at the end of the day, I couldn’t give two hoots. I’m the opposite of a bighead, but this was a vindication of all of the work I have put into the Rights of Fans, a blog which the Daily Telegraph journalist who wrote the Woke and Broke article described as ‘authoritative.’
I thought it was great fun. And seeing my face in what is effectively one of the biggest football culture magazines in the world just makes me laugh. A simple blogger from Lewes, banging on about the appalling way his club is being run, suddenly appearing in a publication read by close to a million people.
Which brings me neatly back to the keyboard warriors.
The Keyboard Warriors. Pathetic Little Lot,
What has happened at Lewes FC in recent years — particularly around governance, finance, transparency, and the treatment of supporters — is too serious to shrug at. Too serious to politely “move on” from. Too serious to leave unrecorded.
And that’s where the keyboard warriors come in.
They’re not critics. They’re not thinkers. They’re not “defenders of the club”. They are people who have mistaken loyalty for obedience. They don’t defend Lewes FC, they defend their own comfort, their own sense of belonging, their own need to believe that everything is fine because the alternative is admitting they backed the wrong people, trusted the wrong narrative, or stayed quiet when they should have spoken up. They are still the cheerleaders for a discredited regime.
So their instinct is always the same: shoot the messenger.
When they see someone asking basic questions, where has the money gone, why do the numbers never add up, why do decisions keep being imposed rather than explained, why do supporters keep being treated like irritants, they don’t respond with curiosity. They respond with hostility. Because curiosity requires thinking, and thinking requires discomfort and effort.
They want the world to be simple: good guys and bad guys, loyal people and enemies, the club and the outsiders.
The problem for them is that reality isn’t built like that. Reality is built on governance, incentives, accountability, competence, and the hard truth that organisations drift towards dysfunction when nobody is allowed to question anything.
The loudest keyboard warriors are always the least useful people in a crisis. They’re never in the room when the decisions are made. They never do the hard work of reading accounts, asking questions properly, attending meetings, or putting their names to anything. They aren’t brave. They’re loud. They confuse noise with courage.
They always use the same cheap tactics: ridicule, misrepresentation, character assassination, insinuation, the “why are you so obsessed?” trope, the “just support the club” mantra, the “you’re damaging the club” accusation.
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But the reality is the opposite.
Pretending nothing is wrong damages the club.
Allowing incompetence to go unchallenged damages the club.
Treating transparency as optional damages the club.
Allowing supporters to be gaslit and patronised damages the club.
If the club is in financial free fall, it won’t be rescued by people screaming at bloggers online. It will be rescued by serious scrutiny, hard questions, and supporters refusing to be treated like children.
And here’s the thing that really irritates them, even if they won’t admit it: I do not write quickly, and I do not write casually. I take time. I research. I think. I try to be fair. And when I’m brutal, I’m brutal for a reason. I don’t throw random accusations around. I build an argument. I produce receipts.
Meanwhile their rantings are emotional spasms. They’re comment-section hissy fits. They’re the digital equivalent of shouting at a stranger in the street and then walking away, convinced you’ve “won”.
Which is why almost nobody listens.
These are people who regularly criticise me and think they are funny and smart saying they wont read what I write. They oenly admit to criticise content they will not read, they are bizarre!
And it’s why, when a serious football culture magazine from Germany wants to write about fan rights, club ownership, and what’s happening at Lewes, they don’t interview the keyboard warriors. They interview the person who has consistently documented what’s happened, explained it, challenged it, and refused to shut up.
They literally call me “the critic” in the piece.
And nearly a million people read it.
So perhaps the two dozen loudmouths who love to put me down might reflect on that.
They can keep typing. They can keep sneering. They can keep trying to reduce everything to personal spite rather than structural critique.
It won’t matter.
Because they are not the story, as self-important as they think they are.
The story is what has happened to our club and how they have backed the wrong horse.
#Lewes #LewesFC #LewesFCWomen #Football #Non League
The Rights of Fans. 