The Curious Case of the 67Fanzine

Yesterday, 8th October, a thread was started on a Celtic fan messageboard asking for information on the Celtic fanzine 67Fanzine. The person starting the thread was Joe from The Celtic Collector's Club. Joe runs the fantastic hobby websites http://www.celticcollectorsclub.co.uk/ and http://www.celticmatchprogrammes.co.uk. It's probable you've clicked on one or both of these websites before in your travels around Celtic cyberspace, they are fantastic for tracking down pieces of Celtic memorabilia. Joe collects every fanzine ever produced by the fanbase and was concerned that Issue 3, which he paid for, had never arrived at his door despite repeated promises it was printed and on its way.

In the first replies of the thread someone stated that the person who ran this fanzine was Andy Muirhead, of the website Scotzine. He's a well known figure in the Scottish football online world. I immediately thought to take myself to Twitter to see what he was saying about any allegation that may have been put to him. Sure enough he was in conversation with someone regarding the fanzine. He stated he had nothing to do with the fanzine and that he had only been involved initially, hosting their website and giving them a design template for the 'zine. He also went on to say he too is owed money by an 'Andy Lamont' and 'Padraig Fitzgerald' from 67Fanzine for hosting costs incurred by him since the website has been online.

Something immediately didn't seem right about this so I did a number of things in an effort to find out what was going on. I was hoping Joe, and presumably others, could get their money back if these people were tracked down. I got in touch privately with Joe and started a discussion with him about the different ways he'd been in touch with people from the fanzine. I also managed to speak to a writing contributor from the first couple of issues. I also asked Andy Muirhead to e-mail me to help clear up the rumours about him running this whole thing despite his claims it was two other people.

The writing contributor got in touch with information that the e-mail account 67fanzine@gmail.com had been in Muirhead's name for around five months before it was changed to 'Andy Lamont/Padraig Fitzgerald'. The first correspondence from the account in Andy L/Padraig F's name was August 5th, five months after initial contact from the account under Muirhead's name. Andy Muirhead's explanation for this is that he set up the account and later handed it over to Andy L and Padraig.

I received the e-mail I had requested from Andy M with his explanation of the situation. In it he explained that one of the people he had set up the fanzine with, Andy Lamont, was not contactable and the other, Padraig Fitzgerald, was in Dubai and had cut all ties with the fanzine. He claims he has been trying to get in touch with them for over a month yet doesn't have a phone number for either of them.

I received information from our friend Joe which showed that the recipient in his Paypal payment to 67Fanzine was named 'Andy Muirhead'. I managed to get in touch with another complainant, Stephen, who hadn't even received Issues One or Two despite paying for them. He too confirmed the recipient in his Paypal payment was the name 'Andy Muirhead'. It was a verified account meaning it is linked to a bank account held by someone called 'Andy Muirhead'.

Before posting on the fan forum, in his efforts to track down the people who run the fanzine, Joe initially had e-mail contact with the address 67fanzine@gmail.com and then with two phone numbers. One of these phone numbers was given to Joe by the distributors who had agreed to sell the fanzine at their stalls on matchdays, the distributors had never seen Issue 3 either, seemingly it was never printed at all. The other number he found on the website of 67Fanzine and inside print copies of Issues Zero, One and Two. He phoned this second number a few times, the person on the other end answered as 'Andy' and assured him copies were being sent out on two occasions. They never arrived. This number was available on the fanzine website at noon on 9th October, it was removed once questions started to be asked online. These two numbers seem to belong to Mr. Andrew Muirhead and they are both listed in the print copy of 67fanzine under 'Editorial' and 'Enquiries'. One of the numbers appears in the e-mail footer of e-mails from the account editor@scotzine.com and when you google either, they both appear linked to Muirhead. The screenshots that follow show this. I have blacked out the full numbers to protect Andy from prank callers. You can click on the images to make them bigger.

I urged Joe and Stephen to e-mail Andy Muirhead direct at editor@scotzine.com and ask for their money back in light of this. He continued to deny he had anything to do with the fanzine beyond web hosting and initial template design. I decided that it was time to ask him some direct questions myself.

I asked:

1) Why is it when people donated money or subscribed to or paid for issues of the fanzine was the recipient's name on Paypal 'Andy Muirhead'?

2) Why is it that the number in the fanzine, the number on the 67Fanzine website until noon yesterday and the contact number a complainant used last week to speak to an 'Andy' about Issue 3 is the same number as yours? You had it in the footer of your e-mail to me yesterday.

3) How did you hand over the Gmail account details without any other form of contact with these people? The names on the account changed in July/August.

4) Why if you were not involved are two of your mobile telephone numbers in the editorial and contact sections of the fanzines?

As of now, I have still received no answers to these questions and the complainants involved have received no reasonable explanation for the evidence linking him to 67Fanzine. In fact myself and Joe were threatened with legal action should we go public with this information.

It was never my intention to publicly go down this route. I had only ever wished people receive money due to them and initially thought Andy Muirhead could put me in touch with those responsible as it was clear he had dealings with these two people. It seems strange to me that a man who is prepared to set up a paypal account, e-mail account and website (which continues to be paid on a monthly basis and which he/Scotzine legally owns) would have no way of contacting the people he was doing this for apart from the e-mail address he set up for them. This isn't an attack on Andy Muirhead or Scotzine, it's just an attempt to get to the bottom of Celtic fans' lost money. The Paypal account appears to be is in his name and his personal phone numbers are on the publication. The last known contact Joe had with the fanzine was through, what appears to be, his number last week. It may be that nothing the circumstantial evidence points to is true. I'm sure if Andy could answer these questions the matter could be cleared up, but he has avoided them. If Andy Lamont or Padraig Fitzgerald come forward then maybe they can deal with questions too but I doubt they even exist. The amounts due to Joe and Stephen may be small but there's no way to tell how many people have ordered issues and not received them. The 67Fanzine website is still online and the 'Donations' and 'Subscriptions' services are still running and accepting money through Paypal.  I feel like I have to present this information to the online Celtic community and the online Scottish football blogging community as a whole because of this. There are only questions, no accusations... but they remain unanswered.