Stewart Home sent me a cutting on L.B. from "The Express", the English conservative newspaper. You are going to find the text at the end of this message. This is an excerpt from Stewart's letter:

"The guy from the Express spoke to me and he was a real asshole. I told him there were thousands of Luthers in Italy, fifty in the UK, with more in Germany, USA etc. So he wanted me to say I was one of them, but I insisted I was just a fellow traveller, since Luther always remains anonymous. He wanted to know about all the ways Luther was infiltrating the UK media. I explained that in the UK Luther was more interested in three-sided football. I had to spend ten minutes explaining the concept to him and when he finally understood, his comment was that three-sided football was a really stupid idea - he was a sports reporter. Then he asked me if there were any philosophical ideas underpinning Luther's activity and I related it to Marx's notion of species being - so then he wanted me to explain Marx to him, which I told him was pointless since he wouldn't use what I said in a right-wing paper like the Express. Anyway, in the end I was glad he didn't misrepresent me, even if he knowingly lied about there only being one Luther in the UK. Judging by my experience, I imagine Alberto Castelvecchi is being misrepresented in the quotes from him".

In fact, the piece is ludicrous and inaccurate. Moreover, former footballer Luther Blissett might feel offended by the quotes from Castelvecchi (who is NOT - and will never be - "the group's spokesman"; he's ONE of Luther's publishers). If Alberto really said those things, then he's a moron.

Please, would someone forward the following statement to AC Watford fans and websites, so that Blissett becomes aware of the "truth". We also need a snail mail address to send him books, zines and press coverage of the project:

Bologna, 2 April 1997

We didn't adopt Blissett's name because he was an imposter hyped by the media, as "The Express" misreported: he simply had problems with the Italian way of playing football, which at that time was too defensive. He was a nice Afro-Caribbean guy. His unlucky season even turned him into a target of racist jokes. The Luther Blissett Project is kind of his revenge on stupidity. We would like to thank Blissett for his tolerant opinion on our multi-use-name project, as recently reported by "The European".

From "The Express", 24 March 97

SPIRIT OF BLUNDERING BLISSETT LIVES ON IN ITALY

By Kevin Garside

THERE's only one Luther Blissett - except in Italy, where there is a proliferating army of them.
Last week "Luther" - or more accurately, four of him - turned up in court in Rome charged with travelling on a train without tickets. They all gave the same name and argued that as a "collective identity" they did not need a ticket.
The real Luther Blissett is, of course, alive and well working as assistant manager at Watford, which is where this bizarre tale has its roots.
His goalscoring exploits for Graham Taylor earned him what appeared to be a dream move to AC Milan 13 years ago. It went horribly wrong. You could count the number of goals he scored on one hand, Milan were relegated and Blissett returned to England.
But he lives on in Italy through The Luther Blissett Project, formed four years ago in Rome in protest at the power held by the world's media barons.
The organisation believes newspapers and TV present lies as truth, which then acquire a sense of reality damaging to a nation's good [and who gives a fuck? LB.n.]. To draw attention to this perceived manipulation, the group has engaged in a series of elaborate hoaxes. The group chose Blissett's because of the alleged falsehood forever associated with it in Italy - namely, that Blissett was a great player.
Alberto Castelvecchi, the group's spokesman and publisher, said: "Blissett was introduced to the Italian public as a star. But he turned out to be something very different from what the newspapers told us he was.
"He was an imposter, a media creation who did not live up the reality. Luther Blissett was, in effect, an irrelevance.
"Our aim is to create similar irrelevances and have them reported as reality to illustrate the way newspapers distort truth." [The very piece you are reading is an example of this. LB.n.]
The real Luther, who is, of course, totally unconnected with these odd goings-on, said: "It's quite something to have your name adopted. Someone from here went to Venice and saw a Luther Blissett sticker on a bridge.
"It's bordering on the ridiculous, but I don't mind them using my name - whoever they are".

Additional reporting: Rohan Daft

Now it is up to any British adopter of the "Luther Blissett" multi-use-name to get better stories in the UK media. Bye.