INSIDE THE FANZINE: VERNATSCH

Vernatsch is a groundhopping fanzine with a style. If you had the chance to purchase a copy, you could read about the author´s impressions of the football and fan culture in countries such as Vietnam, India, Eastern Europe or South East Asia. You get tips how to spend your time in the country when there is no football played.

1. Would you introduce the Vernatsch magazine? What is it about, how many pages, photos...

2. What did you want to say with the titel - Vernatsch? If I am right it is a wine....

Exactly! When I came back from my backpacking trip from South East Asia in the summer of 2018, my friend and I were searching for a name for our fanzine. When we went on a tour to Northern Italy in August 2018 we were camping right in front of the grapes of the tirol wine VERNATSCH in Meran. So as this was our first tour together and as we were emptying one bottle of Vernatsch after another, we decided to call our fanzine Vernatsch. Moreover it is a type of wine that is only found in the area of Tirol in Norhtern Italy and Württemberg, which is the area of our beloved club VfB Stuttgart. So the name even links to our club.

3. Is it your travel diary or do you write also about other things than groundhopping?

Yes, as I said before football and ultras may be the most important topic in our magazine, but it is also a lot about the local culture, food, drinks, social circumstances, the atmosphere of citys and of course about nature. We dont do longer trips without going hiking or camping! The best review we had was about the fact, that we don't just talk about the games, but also go deeper into the clubs history, its local people and regional tourist spots. Another friend took the first edition of Vernatsch to his trip through Vietnam and used it as a trip advisor. That meant a lot for us.

4. Are you working on it alone or do you have some help?

It was my idea to start writing a fanzine, but without my author colleague Bachmann this project would have never come alive. Since the idea which sparked us on an island in Thailand in April 2018, we started working together on the design and layout, including two more friends who helped us with technical and designing issues. In the second edition we had some more friends who gave us one or two articles, so by now we can say we are at least three people who are constantly writing (+ 3 more guest writers) and still two people for the technical support.

5. How many pieces are printed?

6. How did you get into groundhopping?

Everything started in February 2016. For a while I was visiting almost every game of VfB Stuttgart already. But when I traveled to South America in thespring 2016 for an exchange semester in Buenos Aires, I started observing fans and ultras in different cities and how they adrenalize the stadiums. I was way more relaxed because I wasn't involved, so I could analyze the different football cultures. Got goose bumps once in a while and enjoyed seeing games for the faszinating passion the people following their favourite football club.

7. What fascinates you on it?

I think it is the fact that it unites people all over the planet, no matter where you are, which social background you have or which godness your praying to. And the diversity of emotions that people are going through during 90 minutes, I'm barely able to describe what's happening druing a game. So trying to capture these moments with my camera and my own words challenges me and therefore makes me happy if an article works out in the end.

8. Which are your favourite countries where you have watched football?

However I really enjoy going to games in Italy, I have to answer your question with acountry of the South American continent. Probably Argentina.

9. How many countries, matches and stadiums are on your account so far?

Honestly, I'm actually not counting stadiums, countrys or games. I don't care about these plastic numbers. Sometimes I see people comparing their numbers like adolescents comparing their dick length. It's ridiculous.

10. Is traveling all about money? Or in your experience is it possible to see a lot also on a shoestring?

There are ways to travel more efficiently, such as hitchhiking, sleeping in hostels and not needing a high standard of travels as well as not spending your money as if there was no tomorrow only because your on avacation. Though, I must say we should start thinking less about money and more about our carbon footprint. Especially groundhoppers travel (some daily) from game to game only to serve their addiction without caring about the global consequences of the climate. A weekend trip to Athens or Belgrade to see a derby seems pretty normal to us, but I don't think that it is still justifiable nowadays. As every person on this planet also (and especially) groundhoppers need to think and talk about how to reduce their carbon footprint. As for me there is no way of continuing groundhopping the way I did before. Though, I haven't found any solution yet.

11. Covid is probably the biggest obstruction for groundhopping, how can you deal with this situation?

Well, first of all it made my life slower, which I actually enjoyed. Before, I was going to games every weekend but Covid took me out of this bubble. And that was actually very good! It changed my perspective on football, it opened my eyes about what is wrong with football. Such as sexism, racism, carbon footprints and so on. I realized that it is not the same football anymore that I used to love. All that is left is a product, a business. So at the beginning I was very thankful for opening up my eyes.

Now, 9 months later I know more than ever how important these topics are and will be for the future of a fair football. But - I must admit - I miss going to games and being inside a crowded stadium. It gave me more sense to my life than anything else and I can't wait to somehow bring it back to my life as soon as possible. The emptyness inside without football gets bigger and bigger each weekend. Especially, not experiencing and living through the variety of emotions, not turning off the head from daily problems for at least 90 minutes is what I'm missing the most.

12. Do you watch football on TV? Do you like the empty, soulless stadiums?

Since March 2020 I have probably seen max. 7 games on television. It is not the same anymore, for me it always has been about the terraces and fans on them. I never cared so much about the athletic perspective, as so I don't care about the games right now, no matter which game is on.

13. What is your opinion on the future: how covid changed football? Whats gonna be the consequencies of this 1 maybe 2 years under lockdown.

In my opinion there are three different possibilities.

1. The establishment realizes that football has always been about its fans and therefore turns down the importance of business while fans will be reclaiming their game and gaining back their importance. To support this kind of end everyone needs to stop watching the games so the federations realize that football without fans is nothing.

2. People who cared the most will resign and give up and football will turn to its cruelest way of being a pure product. These days we see: They actually don't need fans anymore to keep the business running, so why should they care about us after the pandemic? This is a big threat to a worldwide diverse (fan)-culture.

3. Nothing changes at all, everything and everybody continues to do things the way they did before. This too would be a desaster for our future.