So, you want to share your views about your favourite football team? You have a wicked joke about those bumbling fools from down the road that you'd love to tell everyone? Maybe you just want to sound off about the corruption and mismanagement that's wrecking the club? What you need is to start your own footie fanzine.

Firstly, you need to be a fan. You need lots of opinions, and a fair amount of self-belief. Other requirements for a fanzine are basic literacy and access to a computer. Lots of friends who support the same club are valuable too.

To kick your fanzine off, think of a name. Something related to the club's name is good, and bad puns are almost compulsory. For example Fe - the name coming from the periodic table name for iron - because the club's nickname is the 'Iron'. You also need a logo.

The Content

Next, prepare the content. Lots of jokes, preferably the kind that can be strung out into a full-page article rather than one-liners. And some serious opinions. What every fanzine editor really longs for is controversy and scandal, but most of the time complaining about the quality of referees will do.

When you've got some content, type it up and format it. If you have a fancy Desk Top Publishing program, this comes in handy. If not, don't worry, fanzines are meant to look a little rough.

Pictures are also useful. If you can't draw, find someone to do the odd cartoon. Drawing speech bubbles on photos is always a good bet.

Once you've formatted everything nicely, head down to your local copy shop and have some copies made. Or if you have an office photocopier and you don't think your boss will miss an extra 300 pages, go ahead. However, if you make your own copies, you have to staple them. Then you have to distribute them.

Distribution

Finally, don't forget to send a copy to When Saturday Comes, who keep a list of all football fanzines. When you get listed there, your postbag fills up rapidly with letters pleading for causes you would never otherwise be aware of. The cross-section of humanity that writes to a fanzine editor is fascinating, and is this Researcher's favourite part of being a fanzine editor.