INSIDE THE FANZINE: REVISTA ULTRA´

13.02.2021

This time a different kind of fanzine will be introduced. Revista ULTRA´is a Romanian fanzine which deals with the utras scene in the country...

1. When did you start the Revista ULTRA'?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': Hello to all the Slovakian supporters. Revista ULTRA' was created in Bucharest on the 11th of May 2011 by three supporters of three different teams. The founders are Cătălin, Cosmin, and Cristian.

2. What was the reason that you have launched such a project like a fanzine?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': The reason is quite simple, and I believe it applies in each country that has an ultras movement. In Romania, we had a period when the press blamed the ultras each day. The journalists encouraged the police abuse against the supporters. From the press's point of view, Romania's problem are the ultras. At the same time, the anti-hooliganism law, issued in 2008, which contains a lot of unconstitutional articles, was still active, even though there were a lot of protests against it. The law is still active today. At the same time, we were always fascinated by ultras magazines. We managed to catch the last period of the legendary magazine Supertifo (Italy), in the early 2000s, and we already had a strong contact with other great magazines as Blickfang Ultra (Germany) or To My Kibice (Poland). All these reasons made us start in 2011 this project: Revista ULTRA'.

3. How many people were helping you make the magazine? Writers, photographers, graphics...

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': We were three people at the beginning. The founders. Cosmin was responsible for the layout, Cătălin handled the distribution and I was writing the texts. Of course, we had some help from other ultras from all over the country, especially for pictures. We managed to print 5 numbers in 2011. With time, our ''editorial team'' grew, at some moment we were around 10-12 people working for Revista ULTRA' (printed magazine, website, Facebook page, Instagram ,and other actions like football tournaments).

4. How many copies were printed of each issue?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': I don't think the number of copies that we decided to print is important. But for the statistics, I remember that we made 350 copies for the first number, issued in May 2011. The numbers increased as the magazine's popularity grew and nowadays, we have to print around 1000 copies in order to provide a magazine to each ultras that is interested in it.

5. When you started publishing, did you have any competition in the Romanian market?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': When Revista ULTRA' appeared, in 2011, Romania didn't have any other active ultras magazine. In the past, we had two magazines: ''Romanian Ultras'', issued in three numbers (2002-2003) and ''Supporter'', issued in seven numbers (2006-2007). So, from 2007 until 2011, when Revista ULTRA' was created, Romania didn't have any general ultras magazine. Anyway, I wouldn't call it a competition if someone else would create a new magazine, as much as it protects the ultras' way of life. Today, in 2021, we are still the only active ultras magazine in Romania.

6. If there was any, which European fanzines inspired your work?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': As I said, regarding magazines (or fanzines), Supertifo, Blickfang Ultra, and To My Kibice were our motivation to start this project: Revista ULTRA'. Of course, we had the chance to see other European magazines with interesting content, like Navijaci (Serbia), Football Factory (Czech Republic), Erlebnis Fussball (Germany), or Tifo Support Scandinavien (Sweden). By the way, we presented all these magazines at a street festival in Bucharest, in 2014, where we also had an exposition with ultras photos.

7. It is not easy to distribute a new magazine, How did you manage to do that?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': When you have passion in your heart, nothing is impossible. A few years before Revista ULTRA', I and Catalin had an online store with ultras clothing. This is how we managed to create an ultras community that later bought our magazine. Subsequently, we had help in each main ultras group(curva) and I want to thank them again for this. Without our collaborators and distributors, we couldn't manage to sell magazines. We had also buyers from outside Romania, even though the magazine is written in the Romanian language.

8. The other thing is finances? Did you finance everything on your own or you had some partners or sponsors?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': We financed the magazine at the beginning. Now, Revista ULTRA' finances itself. We have a budget that can assure the next two issues (numbers) publication. All the profit that we made from these magazines went to actions for the Romanian supporters, like the exposition described above or football tournaments like Turneul ULTRA' (Brasov, 2015) and Cupa Unirii (Chisinau, 2016 and 2017). Turneul ULTRA' was organized by us and it was the only ultras tournament ever in Romania.

9. The magazine is full of nice pictures. Are they all of them your photos or you have some of them from contributors?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': Some of the pictures are made by us, but the main part comes from the contributors, like simple ultras or professional photographers. We take this opportunity to thank them again.

10. Was it always easy to get accreditation to games?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': This process of accreditation request is quite weird. In Romania, we had accreditations everywhere we wanted to have a photographer on the pitch, besides two teams, whose press officers don't understand that a healthy democracy means to facilitate the access of information to the public: Romanian National Team and CS U Craiova. For example, each time when we requested accreditation for our Romanian national team match, the press offices refused us saying that ''we are not a publication for supporters''. Regarding the football matches outside Romania sometimes it is very easy to get accreditation (you just send an email with the request and the photos with your ID and the magazine badge attached), sometimes it is impossible (we are refused, or nobody answers our emails).

11. Was it easy to get people talking about their groups? I have a lot of negative experiences.

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': You know, since we started Revista ULTRA', we have become a sort of journalists. Not professional ones, but still journalists. And I think a journalist should never stop insisting on achieving his purpose. This is his job, in fact. We had situations when we were refused or ignored by some ultras groups, but we managed, in almost ten years of activity, to make interviews with the biggest ultras groups in Romania. From outside Romania, we are proud to have interviews with: Curva Sud Milano (AC Milan - Italy), Mancha Verde (Palmeiras - Brazil), Nordkurve (Borussia Monchengladbach - Germany) ,and Ultras Dynamo (Dynamo Kiev - Ukraine). In the next issue we'll have an interview with the most powerful German ultras group. We keep that a surprise for that moment.

12. How much did the ultras scene change in Romania since you started the magazine?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': The ultras movement is very much dependent on the football club's activities. We had a bad period in Romania when the most traditional football clubs were bankrupted, relegated, or even destroyed by the Romanian Football Federation (FC Universitatea Craiova). So the ultras groups' activity was affected by the course of their teams. Overall, I think the quality of the ultras scene decreased, but this is a general worldwide phenomenon. Particularly, in Romania, a trend has developed for the Romanian national team. Without activity at their club team, a lot of ultras groups started to support the national team of Romania. At the moment, I can say that we are in the TOP 5 ultras in Europe, when we speak about the ultras scene around the national football team.

13. What was the reason you have stopped publishing a printed magazine?

Cristian - Revista ULTRA': We never stopped publishing Revista ULTRA'. We print it rarely, is true, but this is because of some reasons like time or motivation. We work on the 8th issue which will be released in May 2021.