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Union City Blue
Union City Blue
Friday, 21st Dec 2012 15:20

Town fan Jake Sweetman is celebrating the release of issue five of his English language Berlin football magazine No Dice in which he has written about the life of the man who links his two footballing homes.

I haven't been back to Portman Road in a long time. It is not that I have fallen out of love with Ipswich Town, more that a dirty little affair with 1.FC Union Berlin turned into something bigger than either of us expected at the time.

It blossomed to the point where I was writing about them, and the hundreds of other clubs in Berlin - each of whom has a different story, that is politically, historically, socially and culturally unique - more and more.

That I helped found a magazine was in no small way thanks to TWTD. The first piece I ever wrote was a cack-handed, expletive-laden interview with my old school friend, and former Town goalkeeping coach, James Hollman. I was so proud when I got that magazine in the post, it felt real, like I had really done something.

That feeling still gets me every time we get the new issue of No Dice back from the printers. It happened yesterday as I flicked through its pristine pages. I made this.

No Dice is a labour of love, it is a niche within a niche within a niche and will never make any money, but I like to think that it represents a little bit of Berlin's real footballing culture and a little bit of what TWTD still represents, despite being worlds apart from England and English football.

Inside issue five is a self-indulgent little story by me about Edwin Dutton, who became Town’s first ever professional manager.

Dutton's life is so fantastic in so many ways it seems trite to sum it up as quickly as I have done in the magazine, but, for me, he would represent a kind of bringing of my two homes together, Ipswich and Berlin. I hope this comes across.

If you like the magazine you can order print copies online, or you can give a donation for the PDF download. It's up to you. I'd write it anyway.

You can see a short film about No Dice here.


Photo: Action Images



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