Dom's Dugout...pupiline's Own Footie Correspondent

The Internet, web, information superhighway -whatever you want to call it opens many windows of opportunity for anybody - it can help you realise things beyond your normal expectations. For my football club West Lindsey Juniors F.C. it has opened windows at home, abroad and has given us national acclaim.

West Lindsey Juniors F.C. were established in January 1997, and although a relatively new club, we have had a lot of success, locally and nationwide. We have hosted three international tournaments, in 1997 we hosted the first in Glanford Park, the home of Scunthorpe United, and featured S.V. Houten of Utrecht in the Netherlands. In 1998 our tournament was held at our own Cherry Valley Sports Ground, this time the tournament featured the Colombian team Andreas Escobar and a year later when our site was now fully functional we put an appeal out for teams that wanted to partake. We were then contacted by teams from all over England, who had visited our web-site, we also had enquires from abroad. In 1999 and 2000 we had an invitation tournament at the Millennium Club in Cleethorpes, where teams from all over the world came and played games over a long weekend. Both of these two tournaments were arranged over the Internet, from inviting teams to gaining sponsorship it would not have been possible without using the Internet. Having our own web-site proved vital as we then had something to show the teams wanting to enter the tournament and prospective sponsors, they could view what we were doing, and how we were going to go about doing it.

We also have been on two European tours, both totally arranged over the internet. We searched various web-sites for the sites of other such Śconnectedą teams from Holland. We had a successful visit and after arranging everything over the internet with travel companies, football teams etc we had a successful tour-winning all four of our games. We also organised another similar tour through the internet in 2000, which was equally successful. We have made many friends over the internet and this is shown best by the number of invitations we get from teams and organisations all over the world to tournaments and to travel to their country to play football.

In August 2001 we are hopefully travelling to play in Nepal. This came about when the Head of the N.F.F.C. www.bhakundo.org.np (Nepalese football fans association) stumbled across our site and e-mailed us and asked for advise on grassroots football because in Nepal they are trying to make football more accessible for youngsters. We corresponded with them for a while and then we got an invite to travel to Nepal and play. We will play the Nepalese U/16 national team and other teams from around Kathmandu and will also be visiting orphanages, coaching street children and being ambassadors for our country. What makes this even more of an honour is that we will be the first ever English team to play in Nepal.

I believe that all football teams should have a web-site. It helps greatly when organising tournaments and tours, and can also get you a ticket to a far off and exotic location! These are the sort of contacts that can be made using the internet, and look at us for an example of the riches the internet has to offer.

-Dom