Inside the world of Copa90

Ian Burrell heads to the Derby of Love in Vienna with Copa90 and goes behind the scenes at the digital media success story which covers football in an unorthodox but incredibly popular way

(Copa 90)

Wiener-SportKlub is no ordinary football club. Stadium announcer Roland Spoettling settles into his cubicle overlooking the pitch and types out the match day team-sheet, in Braille. A nearby staircase, graduating to the supporters’ clubhouse, The Flag, spells out the organisation’s values in white-painted stencils, step-by-step: “Love. Peace. Respect. No Homophobia. No Racism…”

This is a football ground that was identified as one of the ten that any dedicated fan must visit “before you die” by Copa90, the British-based Internet channel that is revolutionising coverage of world football without the rights to film a single game. Copa90’s mission is to report football away from the pitch; reflecting the theatre of the fan culture that underpins television’s great soap opera of millionaire players and corporate sponsorship deals.

Copa90’s videos have made it one of YouTube’s star performers, with 1.12 million subscribers. Its Facebook page has 2 million likes, and the average Copa90 user watches 37 minutes of film every week. Loyalty and passion are intrinsic qualities in a diehard football fan and if Copa 90 can maintain its reputation for authentic stories from the terraces, it can have a relationship with a young global audience that even the biggest clubs struggle to retain outside of match days.

Certainly Spoettling, Wiener SportKlub’s announcer for 18 years despite his lack of sight, is glad of Copa90’s presence at the ground. It’s a way of telling the world that SportKlub, in its 1958 heyday, beat the mighty Juventus 7-0, the Italian giant’s worst defeat in European competition. “Such a team should have an international reputation,” he says.

A rising crescendo of noise from the street annunciates the reason for Copa90’s trip to Vienna. Mobbed behind a yellow-and-blue banner and hurling smoke bombs before them, the fans of SportKlub’s rivals, First Vienna FC, are making their way to this local derby. Copa90 loves a derby and travels the world to document the histories and oddities of such needle matches.

But this game’s a bit different. On closer inspection, behind the moody-looking front rank in balaclavas and dark glasses, the First Vienna fans are a diverse crew. One is playing bagpipes, another chap has a punk Mohawk, knee-high boots and green tights. When they pass behind the Friedhofstribune (Graveyard Terrace), where SportKlub fans are enjoying pre-match beer and schnitzels, the First Vienna mob greet their rivals with a shower of yellow paper ribbons. Applause is offered in reciprocity. This is the so-called “Derby of Love”, where two of Vienna’s oldest (though not biggest) clubs celebrate a shared history of being rescued by their fans from financial peril.

Copa90 knows about these stories because its team are all football obsessives.

Crouching ahead of the First Vienna procession, Neil “Stace” Stacey, senior producer and Crystal Palace supporter, discreetly records the scene on a simple Canon EDS 5D camera – the sort a tourist might carry. Martino Simcik Arese, a gangling 26-year-old Italian-American with an encyclopaedic knowledge of football fan culture, is on hand to take rough-and-ready footage on his iPhone. Simcik Arese’s jacket has the insignia of his team, Clapton FC, the Essex league side with a following of East London radical Ultra fans. He is convinced that football can be an agent for positive social change. Presenting the film is Meti Metehan, 23, a German Fenerbahce fan who, like other Copa90 presenters, won an online competition to host its content.

Copa90’s attitude chimes with fan-based movements such as Against Modern Football, which campaign for supporters’ rights. Not only is Copa a disruptor of the traditional broadcasting model, it has kudos denied the likes of Sky and BT, which are often derided from the terraces for flooding football with money.


 (Copa90)
 (Copa 90)

But therein is a dilemma for a four-year-old company with ambition. Big clubs and the game’s authorities are coming in search of Copa90’s pixie dust for holding the attention of football’s fan base. Copa already produces for the Manchester City YouTube channel, while Nissan and Hyundai have sponsored its film strands. “Even the biggest governing bodies need to appeal to a younger audience and if they can borrow a bit of Copa 90cool it makes sense,” says James Kirkham, head of Copa 90. He admits, though, that there is a “difficult tightrope” for Copa to walk if it is to be an ally of both the game’s power players and the grass roots.

On the Graveyard Terrace, (named after the giant cemetery behind SportKlub’s ground), fan Kurt Reichinger expresses the view that Copa90 “comes from the fans, for the fans”. The First Vienna contingent, meanwhile, drape the away end in banners with slogans such as “Love Football, Hate Sexism”, before watching their team win the Derby of Love 2-0.

Stacey and Scott Dulson (who wields a more sophisticated Canon C300 camera and is known as “Bumbag” because of his need for portable gadgetry) capture the post-match celebrations from the pitch. In earlier times, when Copa was seen as just “filming for YouTube”, cameras had to be smuggled in to grounds. Now, clubs from Fiorentina to Sydney FC roll out the red carpet.

Both Stacey (an eyebrow-pierced optimist who spent his Twenties travelling in Australia, Guatemala and Denmark) and Dulson (a former bass player with noted Liverpool band The Bandits) came to video journalism late and appreciate their work. On the evening before the Derby of Love, they choose to cross town to Floridsdorfer, where another remarkable football story is unfolding.

Traditional club Austria Salzburg – rescued by its fans after its ground was taken by new money Red Bull Salzburg – has been ordered by the Austrian football authorities to play its rival Wacker Innsbruck in Vienna, on the other side of the country, for safety reasons. Hundreds of noisy fans of both clubs have travelled five hours to watch a Friday night game in a tiny ground with scores of riot police in attendance. Salzburg defender Raphal Reifeltshammer tells Copa: “We stand for the passion and for the real football – for us the money is not important.” Simcik Arese is delighted: “It’s really good to meet footballers like you!” It’s a bonus film from the trip.

(Copa 90 (Copa 90)

Stacey was recently filming thousands of CSKA Sofia fans perform a Star Wars terrace choreography wearing Stormtrooper masks. His next trips will feature fans in Indonesia and Argentina.

At Copa’s offices, behind London’s Exmouth Market, its founder Tom Thirlwall, CEO of owner company Bigballs Media, says the so-called “Achilles heel” of having no match rights has been a liberation. Unlike broadcasters, Copa covers any football competition, in any country.

In a den of a studio with brown leather armchairs, Copa90 presenters (and social media personalities) Poet & Vuj host the channel’s two regular shows FIFA & Chill (named after the computer game, not the dubious governing body) and Comments Below.

Copa’s staff are allocated to different sections of its audience, from FOTs (“football obsessed teenagers”) to travel-driven “experience seekers”.

Marketing director Phil Mitchelson monitors the response to a new video, Epic Fireball Football, featuring freestyle players juggling footballs coated in ignited accelerant. The film was given to Sport Bible (another UK digital media success story) and racked up 1.4 million views in 16 hours. Sport Bible is among a number of outlets in a “Copa Collective” of likeminded brands. “In our world, collaboration is key,” says Mitchelson.

Suddenly the office erupts as 50 members of staff begin a football chant. Everyone is on their feet, twirling club scarfs above their heads like Ultras – even Thirlwall, the boss. Simcik Arese is being held aloft – it transpires that he has turned 27. It’s Happy Birthday, Copa 90 style.