AFL Hits Milestone Of 300,000+ Football Participants in its Online Community

The
Australian Football League (AFL) is delighted about the achievements of
Footyweb, its online community for football participants, provided by sports
technology company SportingPulse. Now into its third successful season,
Footyweb already links over 300,000 participants, 70 leagues and 2,500 clubs in
20 countries, delivering an online network across the globe. Footyweb also
provides them with SportingPulse’s comprehensive competition, communication and
membership management system, the combination of which is expected to save the sport
well over $1 million a year.

“Being
part of the Footyweb network means that grassroots football leagues and clubs
now have their own personalized websites, which help them to create new revenue
streams by engaging with fans and communicating with them at a local level.
Footyweb also helps them to increase their membership, to drive participation
from players, volunteers, coaches, umpires and also the 147,000 Auskick
children,” said Andrew Demetriou, AFL CEO. Glenn Archer, Kangaroos midfielder
since 1991 when he joined the club’s under 19 team, is incredibly proud to be
playing his 300th game for the club very soon as he’s only the second player to
reach this amazing milestone. Glenn is one of the veterans of football, playing
since the tender age of four. He started his playing career at the grassroots
level for Lyndale in the Dandenong District League and continues to give his
support to grassroots football through his involvement in the Auskick
introductory program.

Archer is
now a SportingPulse Ambassador and owner of a player management business, the
AFL Players’ Association has awarded Archer the Robert Rose Award for Most
Courageous Player six times in nine years, more than any player in the 16 year
history of the award. Glenn was also awarded “Shinboner of the
Century” by the Kangaroos Football Club in 2005.

“It’s a
proud and emotional moment for me to reach the milestone of 300 games for the
club, and I just hope the kids who look up to me can be inspired to keep
participating in football as it’s a great Australian sport and a fantastic
career to get into,” said Glenn Archer, Kangaroos. “Participation in football
right from the grassroots level is being driven by Footyweb, and I am a true
advocate of SportingPulse and delighted to become an Ambassador of theirs,”
Archer continued. Footyweb provides its members at all levels with a total
competition management system incorporating fixtures, ladders, statistics,
online results and clearances, websites, online registration and maintenance
for Auskick participants, plus demographic and geographical data. This helps
the AFL, state leagues, regional leagues, clubs, and most importantly the
volunteers to manage football competitions more efficiently, reducing costs and
saving time. The AFL believes that being able to track and manage each and
every participant in football will lead to greater efficiencies and better
communication. This will, in their view, result in increased membership of the
sport nationally and internationally. “The lifeblood of grassroots football is
maintained through the commitment of its volunteers and Footyweb has done a
tremendous amount to drive their participation and engagement in the sport, by
making the time they dedicate more efficient and productive,” said Tony Abate,
Manager of Footyweb.

SportingPulse
has been involved with Australian Rules football for five years and is looking
forward to achieving the goal of having every single football participant
registered on Footyweb by the commencement of the 2009 winter season. Nick
Maywald, CEO SportingPulse said: “We are absolutely delighted to be involved in
creating and developing such a high participation online community like
Footyweb. To have already reached a position where the sport will be saving
over $1 million per year, as well as creating the opportunity to generate
significant new revenue streams for the grassroots of the game is fantastic.”