Interview: Creators of Hopeless Football Romantic share their experiences publishing the much-loved magazine

The trio took a love for football magazines, programmes, and fanzines, and built publication with a rabid fanbase

Hopeless Football Romantic, affectionately unknown as HFR amongst its die-hard fanbase, was created out of a love of football magazines, programmes, and fanzines.

Launched by the trio of Olly Scholes, Darren Montgomery, and Stuart Mole, HFR started life slowly but quickly picked up pace thanks to word of mouth amongst football fans and positive feedback on social media. 

HFR published its first issue in 2015, featuring articles from a collection of contributors and artists, eager to join the HFR project. it didn’t take long for HFR to build a fanbase, hungry to get their hands on every new physical copy or PDF version. 

Now preparing their 14th issue, the trio sat down to talk about the past, present, and future of HFR, along with some of the great merchandise sold on the magazine’s website. 

(OS – Olly Scholes, DM – Darren Montgomery, SM – Stuart Mole) 

Drew: Let’s go back to the beginning of HFR. How did the idea for the magazine come about? 

SM: There were a few factors in the mix here. I had always been fascinated by magazines growing up, World Soccer, Match, and Shoot to name a few. It wasn’t just the content though, I remember taking a liking to the use of fonts, picture placement, and what brought the structure of the page together. I started quite the magazine collection, football programmes and the Pink (a north-east England football paper). Wish I still had them!

So, the love was already there for print. It was just about rediscovering this as an adult. I started writing quite a bit and offering articles to various publications. It wasn’t until (a person will remain nameless as they don't deserve the attention) butchered my article, pretty much rewriting the piece to an unrecognisable fashion, that pushed me to take the step. It made me feel like a bit of a dick. I thought fuck him; I’ll start my own magazine and it’ll be 10 times what you’re doing here.

Fast forward nine years, we’re about to release Issue 14, have sold in every continent, continue to attract hundreds of writers and creatives from around the world, and raised thousands of pounds for charities close to our hearts. 

Drew: How long did it take from the initial idea to actually publishing the first edition of HFR? 

SM: Once I had made the commitment in my mind, it was about working out the process and logistics of producing a magazine, one worthy of being read amongst a million football content platforms. I pulled in Darren who I knew was creating something similar in the music space, but also someone I trusted completely to do this with me. Once he was in, that was it.

There were some fundamentals for us, non-negotiables, which would set us apart, including:

• talking about the positive aspects of football, memories, untold stories and personal accounts,

• carrying market-leading illustrations and artwork, especially the front cover. Treating that as a prized section of the Louvre was important to us,

• and ensuring the next issue was better than the last. Always improving and adding talent as we go.
  

Once we had those things in place, it was just about getting the content in, contacting as many people as we could and selling the idea. With commitment, ethos, and people, the mag could be created. Printing though, was one of the most humbling experiences we’ve had.

We started a Kickstarter campaign, pitching the idea to anyone and everyone. The money raised was to cover the cost of the first print run. In the end, we had 24 people support the idea and were able to fund this adventure.

Drew: How did you get a group of writers together for the first issue? Is it difficult to get writers for issues or has HFR’s reputation made it possible to find writers easier?

DM: It started out just the two of us, Darren and Stuart, and it ended up with one writing the editorial and one writing a piece for the website ahead of launch, so we managed to get a good amount of contributions in the end. The first few issues were more difficult and certainly different. We had to put out invitations to contribute on social media, rely on friends who wrote, and get recommendations for who to approach. From there we built a network, used social media groups to pitch article ideas and commission and were active in approaching people to contribute. We couldn’t pay – as we had no money – so it was about trying to sell the platform and using the magazine to push the work of aspiring writers. We’re pretty proud of where some of the early contributors got to, a few now in the industry, on TV, and in the national press. It became easier after a while when we had more of a presence. And we give hypothetical caps out for each mag appearance, so obviously everyone wants to be Peter Shilton. Well, actually, no one does, but they do want the most caps.

Drew: The artwork for HFR has always been incredible. Tell me about the artwork HFR publishes and its importance to the magazine.  

OS: From a personal perspective it is an aspect of the mag I’m particularly proud of. You want your magazine to stand out on the shelf. You want it to catch the readers’ eye. We’re so lucky that we’ve had some incredible artists who have designed articles for us and continue to do so. Visually the magazine has come on a lot since issue No 1, but none of that would be possible without some great writing to complement it. We used to spend a lot of time reaching out to artists, but now we get inundated with offers on social media, and while I'm not one to blow our trumpet so to speak, we see that as a huge compliment. It tells us we’re doing something right. Mainly for me though, as good as we think the magazine looks, the most important thing is the artists’ work being shown to a wider audience. We aren’t really the ones who put the work in, that’s the artists and writers. All we really do is share their work.

Drew: What were some of the early struggles you encountered in producing the magazine? What advice would you give to anyone wanting to create a magazine or fanzine?

DM: So, there’s the cost, which ultimately dictates your sale price, and what you want it to look like. It’s about finding the balance between what you want to produce for the right price. We’ve always tried to keep the cost down and we’ve never really made money on it, it was more about paying for the next run. We’ve tried to be clever with things like pre-orders and been careful not to over-order (the ill-fated World Cup issues are still a discussion topic). And we’ve shopped around for printing we like and trust which can get pricey. Then, in terms of style and quality, it was difficult at first not having expensive editing software and we had to get creative, but it does help if you can get access. We also rely on illustrators to feature their work which needs a proactive approach. We’ve also made a big deal about the covers too, trying to be unique but also want to compensate people for their time where we can. That’s all a bit process driven, but my advice would be creative, and find your style and work around that – don’t put it out unless you’re happy with it.

Drew: Do the financial costs of publishing a print magazine outweigh the benefits in 2023?  

OS: I think you’d be surprised. We shopped around a lot. Obviously, there are some printers that charge a lot more, but we wanted a good balance of quality and cost and we believe we’ve found that. We use a company which is UK based that uses ethically sourced materials and that’s something else we see as being really important.

Drew: How many copies of each issue are printed? With the success of HFR, how quickly do the issues typically sell out? 

OS: The magazine has grown organically since issue No 1, and we’ve gone from 50 copies per issue to ordering 200-plus per issue in the later mags. We would love to order more but we are non-profit and so this limits how many we can order. It also takes a lot of time to organise, so we feel at the moment that we’d rather move on to the next issue once the previous one has sold. This usually takes no longer than a week.

Drew: There have been 13 issues of HFR over the years. I had the privilege of having articles in issues 5 and 6. How often do you release new issues and why is there a gap between them compared to newsstand magazines like World Football or FFT?

OS: We aim to release two issues a year, but things have been a bit transitional over the last couple of years. We want to be consistent, but things sometimes take over. It's difficult for us to get together often due to us living in Newcastle, London, New Zealand, and Warrington, so we do the best we can to share ideas on WhatsApp. As it’s a not-for-profit mag, we must prioritise family and work too, so it's been difficult to make sure we release two a year. We’ve got lots of change going on behind the scenes at the moment which I believe means we’ll be far more consistent going forward. It's important to us that we do exactly what we say on the tin. The last thing we want is to lose our loyal customers because we haven't released anything for ages.

Drew: HFR isn’t just about the magazine. There is other merchandise available from the HFR website, including very popular pins. Explain the reason for expanding the HFR range of merchandise. 

OS: To be honest, the magazine is our priority. We absolutely love all of the research, editing and learning new stuff about the beautiful game, and we’re passionate about sharing upcoming writers and artists. We don’t claim to have made careers or anything, but seeing previous contributors doing so well fills us with so much pride. Molly Hudson who now writes for the Times has contributed to earlier issues and it's great to see her being such a great role model to young budding female writers in the women's game. 

In terms of pins, it was never our intention to do many. We share so many ideas about new merch and so much of it ends up on the cutting room floor. We are perfectionists and don’t want to release something for the sake of it. It has to be quality, and it has to have a purpose. A couple of years ago we designed a pin, went through all of the admin, got to the stage of actually making it and decided it didn’t meet our high standards. So it went no further. 

Our first pin badge was the Tino Asprilla. We ordered 100 and ended up having to reorder more. I’ll never forget, I was at a football match at Leicester Nirvana when it went on sale. My phone never stopped all game with sale alerts. It felt absolutely incredible that something we created had been so popular. I panicked and had to take it off sale before the 90 mins was up as it had sold so fast. Even then, we still didn’t plan to design any more.

But then we found ourselves in a position where we had a certain stature online and that gave us an opportunity to do some good for society too. People loved the pins, we had gained far more followers on the back of the Tino sale, so we started talking about doing some pins for charity. The Jonas Gutierrez pin became an obvious choice. Not only was it a protest pin, in as much as the celebration the pin represented was a ‘F*** You’ to our previous owner, but it was also a great link to a charity, Ballboys testicular cancer charity. We sold out in hours and raised over £500 for Ballboys. Since then we’ve done a Gary Speed pin for CALM, raising £1,000, a Neville Southall pin for SFoodbanks in Liverpool and a Marcus Rashford pin for Fareshare Greater Manchester. We’ve got loads of ideas for new pins, we’ll have to do a Liverpool pin soon too. The Scousers are so similar to us Geordies in their warmth and kindness. We’re open to ideas.

We’ve been really proud of the amount we’ve raised but there's lots more work to do and we’ll keep on doing that. Occasionally, we’ll do pins that go back into our coffers, but anything we make gets reinvested in the mag. Hopefully, we’ll be in a position to pay our amazing contributors one day, too. 

Other stuff we’ve done, like mugs and t-shirts have just been ideas we’ve thought of and acted on. We’d like to do more, but we’d have to be sure it was something people wanted to wear first. And it would have to be quality.

Drew: The Big Joe pin badge sold out very quickly. Do you expect to see Big Joe pin badges on fans at Newcastle games in the upcoming season? 

OS: I’d love that. The majority of our customer base is NUFC, and we appreciate that, although we hope our mag appeals to all football fans. With that in mind, lots of the stuff we produce is NUFC related. It’s been amazing seeing posts from people going to matches with their pins on, and I hope the Joelinton is no different. I bumped into someone a while back at St James’ Park with a Gary Speed pin and was quite taken aback. You expect people to buy them because of the cause but to see people wear them too was incredible. It makes me proud that we’ve been able to make a small difference to someone out there when I see them being worn.

Drew: Are there plans for any new additions in the merchandise store in the future? 

OS: Joelinton is the first in a new range we’re releasing. Due to financial restraints, we’ll be doing one or two at a time, so watch this space for those. They are based on a range of pins that were released up here in the 90s of The Entertainers Squad. They were caricatures of the Keegan-era squad and were really popular. We thought this current crop deserved a similar status. I didn’t think for a second they’d be as popular as they ended up being, so I'm looking forward to the next one dropping soon. I’d love to think people will be talking about our range in 30 years in the same way they remember the 90s pins, haha. We’ll probably think of some other stuff to do, too. We’ve been talking about a scarf for years, so maybe we’ll get around to that one day. More charity pins too, that’s a given. The more everyone can do to support those less fortunate the better in this current climate. 

Drew: Back issues can be purchased from the website as PDFs. Are there still paperback/physical copies for readers to purchase of old issues?  

OS: It's not something we’re planning currently. I looked into it recently but there's a minimum number of copies you’d need to order, and we know we wouldn’t sell that many. I’d love for people to dig around in their lofts for preloved back issues and get in touch with us though so we can help people complete their collections. It’s something I’d love to do in future but for now, we just can’t afford it. Maybe we could do one issue at a time one day. People often ask us for back issues or old pins, and we have no stock. It would be great to have a bit of stuff left over. One thing we are planning to do is to make all of the back issues free so as many people as possible can access them.

Drew: What is the future of HFR?

OS: The future is actually really exciting. There are lots of changes going on as I said, and sadly one of us is moving on elsewhere. We wish him all the best and can’t wait to see him share his new project. For us, we regroup and get Issue 14 finished. Our readership has waited long enough. Then we’ve got the next of our pin badges to come in mid-July and we’re starting a Last Man Standing Competition for the new Premier League Season. The money raised will be halved between the winner and a local kids' football club to pay for new strips.

We also want to continue to grow our brand and welcome contributors, old and new, on our journey. Anyone looking to contribute with articles, artwork, photography, or anything else can feel free to drop us an email at info@wearehfr.com 

Aside from this, we’ve got a potentially exciting project coming in the next 12 months so watch this space on that. And I’m also on a personal crusade involving issue 14, but both of these things are as Top Secret as Colonel Sanders's 11 herbs and spices for now.

I’d finally like to guarantee our readers that going forward, we’ll release two mags every year. No excuses, no missed deadlines. Let's all keep print going.

You can learn more about HFR and explore the shop by visiting its official website. PDF versions of back issues of the magazine are available. This is not an affiliate link.