Sotiris Alexandrou: “What fascinates me about football is this passion, this madness, a spontaneous and unpredictable energy outside the norm”

Sotiris Alexandrou
Head of publications at Aprovleptes Ekdoseis and a member of the editorial team of HUMBA! magazine.

Dimitris Rapidis
Grants Officer & Political Researcher - ETERON

How did you start getting involved in the field of football literature and how did Aprovleptes Ekdoseis come about?

It all started with the Radical Fans United collective, in which I participated from its early steps. An initiative of fans from various teams that in the distant 2007 set as their goal to talk about issues concerning fans (sports laws, administrative arbitrariness, police repression, fan violence, ticket prices, absurd bans, etc.). Through this collective, the magazine HUMBA! emerged, a magazine about the social and political meaning of sports, fan culture and the experience of the stadium. Aprovleptes Ekdoseis was born in 2011, one year after the creation of the magazine HUMBA!, which this year completes 15 years of publishing, and not only, activity.

What fascinates you about football and how does this translate into your publishing activity?

What fascinates me about football is the image of Peres, a football player for Panaitolikos in Greece, running towards the stands where the 100 visiting fans of the Agrinio team are and climbing the railings, celebrating with them the goal he scored in the 93rd minute of the match and secured his team the victory, in the match against Volos at the Panthessaliko Stadium. What fascinates me a little more about football is this passion, this madness, a spontaneous and unpredictable (oops, there’s the title of the publications) energy outside the well-established and predicted reality that shows the power of this game. Such actions show that football is more than just a game…

Also, I am fascinated by the social dimension of football, everything related to the game outside of the pitch interests me very much, much more than an impressive action on the pitch or an innovative coaching and strategy. The charm exerted by this mysterious force that lifts players and fans into an imaginary sphere without borders where, in a strange way, all the values ​​and problems of real society are tested with such intense passion, is far more interesting than a Soares backheel…

So, the series of books of our publications that embark on football (i.e. because we also deal with music and underground cultures), have at their center all the above charming things…

What criteria do you use to select the books you will publish? What kind of football books interest you the most? Stories with social or historical reference, personal stories?

As stated in the description of the magazine HUMBA!, the criterion is that the text should touch on “the social and political meaning of sports” or “the culture of the fans and the experience of the stadium”. So far, our books related to football cover the subject both historically, sociologically and experientially. From our first book entitled “Football in Africa”, where we learn the social history of various countries on the continent through football, to our latest publication entitled “The ULTRAS phenomenon in Italy”, which is a historical and sociological review of organized fans in Italy from 1968 to the present day, the social implications of football and its protagonists (on the field of play, but also in the stands) are our guide.

What is your opinion on Greek football literature?

The number of books that could be described as purely football literature is limited. References to football can be found in many literary texts or pieces in collections of short stories or even in literary magazines. But stories like, say, “The jersey with number 9” or “The road to glory” by Hadjiargyris or the collection of short stories by the late Christos Charalambopoulos “The half-time of death” that have been written with football at the center are unfortunately few. And it is truly astonishing that a field like football (and everything related to it) that unveils such intense and contradictory emotions and passions, but also creates such beautiful images, does not fit into the literary genre of writing. In fact, it is not even chosen by writers who love the sport. However, there are books that have been written that refer to football that, in my opinion, are masterpieces, such as “The Chalk Dust” by Christos Kythreotis, “The International” by Tolis Kazantzis, or Manolis Anagnostakis’ texts on the human geography of the football stands.

What are the biggest difficulties and challenges that a football book publisher faces in Greece today?

As for the difficulties, the question is always the same: is there an audience in Greece that is interested in and reads about football from a socio-political perspective? Is there an audience that will appreciate a book like “The Derby of the Dead Child” by Valerio Marchi, which refers to the way fans in Italy react against the commercialization of football, much more than a biography of Messi or Ronaldo?

And there, in the ever-increasing connection of football with financial interests with the aim of turning the sport from a game into just a commodity with crazy sales, lies the biggest challenge for me. Despite the shift that football is taking, my passion for the “round goddess” should not fade. I hope I will not at some point say a line that so many around us who love football have uttered: “I’m sick of them all, football as I knew it no longer exists.” But I think that no matter what the “bosses” of world football think, devise and implement, there will always be teams, players, coaches, fans who will see football differently…and thus will offer us beautiful stories for future publications.