Ballesterer

“ballesterer” is the only printed Austrian football (soccer) magazine. The magazine is written in German and read mostly in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. It is distributed through newsagents in Austria and Germany as well as through subscriptions. The magazine is edited by a private limited company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) whose shareholders are all regularly participating in the production of the magazine. The magazine’s approach is similar to the ones of football (soccer) magazines like “When Saturday Comes” (England), “11 Freunde” (Germany), “Zwölf” (Switzerland), “So Foot” (France), “Panenka” (Spain), Offside (Sweden) etc. History The magazine was founded in Vienna in 2000 by a handful of football (soccer) enthusiasts with the aim of producing an alternative to the existing media coverage of the sport. From th beginning ballesterer has been focusing on topics that had been widely neglected so far, such as fan culture economic and social aspects of football (soccer) commercialisation racism repression history The term “ballesterer” is a colloquial expression of Austrian German. It means “football (soccer) player” and has a romantic touch, thereby contrasting with demands of efficiency commonly directed at football players. “ballesterer” was published quarterly from 2002 to 2005 and every second month till 2008. Since then its frequency of publication has been ten times per year. Till June 2014 92 issues have been published. Public reception of ballesterer Other media, especially Austrian TV and radio stations, frequently invite ballesterer authors are to contribute their expertise in public discussion on issues such as fan and police violence, match fixing, or, most recently, World Cup related protests in Brazil. In 2003, David Forster revealed in “ballesterer” the fact that in 1939 more than thousand Jews had been detained in Austria’s national stadium before they were sent to the concentration camp Buchenwald where most of them were massacred by the nazis. Forster’s article ultimately led to the installation of a memorial tablet in the national stadium (Ernst Happel Stadium) in Vienna. Authors Nicole Selmer, Mathias Slezak and founder Reinhard Krennhuber received Austrian Sports Media awards for their works published in ballesterer.