Hello! Back in the day, when fanzines were a huge thing among footy fans, there was a fanzine dedicated to English speaking fans of German football, called Elfmeter. The creator of the fanzine, Dave Wangerin, has since sadly passed on. An American Villa fan, he was well known among fanzine groups and a regular contributor to other fanzines and publications. When he decided to hang up the pen, I took over the fanzine from him and kept it going for a few years before I too found it took up too much time. Although someone did initially volunteer to take on the baton, on realising the effort involved for just 100 subscribers (give or take) he too pulled out.
I’ve held onto the elfmeter domains ever since and for most of the twenty-odd years since the demise of the fanzine, have thought building a website was something I would definitely kick off next weekend. I think this is the third or fourth attempt at that. Fingers crossed this one holds out. I know there are plenty of English-speaking fans of German football out there. For example, the guy who runs the UK arm of the Schalke fan club (my German team) is also a fan of my English team (Gillingham), although we don’t know each other, have never met, and to the best of my knowledge, he doesn’t even know Elfmeter ever existed.
The plan is to write a “from a distance” update each matchday. Then include articles of people’s trips to German matches. Hopefully include a forum at some point. And if I’m feeling really brave, write articles on a number of other subjects, such as teams who have played in the Bundesliga and since dropped out of site. If you’re interested in writing an article, please get in touch.
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