Football Poets

Like Us on Facebook & Follow on Twitter Update

Up-dated March 23 2012.

1 FOOTBALL POETS ON FACEBOOK Launched March 2012

If you are on Facebook, please click Like’ to help save this website . Visit www.facebook.com/FootballPoets or click here: Football Poets on Facebook

Aside from people looking at our new pages, 94 people have already made contact and clicked Like since we launched it..so big thanks also to the first 42 football poet ‘Likers’ (just some of those who contribute here with their poems regularly) to have clicked ‘Like’ so far ….
(MORE PLEASE!)..they are :

Thanks also to the first 42 football poet- Facebook ‘Likers’ who contribute their football poems here.. to have clicked ‘Like’ so far (MORE PLEASE!)..they are :

Alan McKean, Christian Wach, Christopher T George (USA) Crispin Thomas (Editor), Dachlan Cartwright, Daniel McDonagh (Canada), Daniel Nice, Darren O’Keefe (Ireland), Dennis ‘Just Dennis’ Monaghan, Dennis Swift, Don Mullan, Eddie Gibbons , Emdad Rahman, Emily Williams, Gacina Galles (Southern France) , Harry Owen (S.Africa), Jim Dolbear, Jimmy Whelan, Joanna Ginger, Jools Hampton, Kevin O’Donaghue, Khadim Hussain, Laijon Liu, Louis Stothard, Mark Merriman, Mike Hopkins (Australia), Nathan Levy, Patrick Osada, Paul Phraser (Poor-Phraser) Paul Hatt, Paul Tubb (Ireland), Peter Goulding (Co-Editor/ Ireland), Phil Brennan, Rik Manning, Rosemary Dun, Si Gorin, Simon Icke, Steve Hill and Tomas de Faoite.. in addition to all long time friends of the site including Larry (Israel) & Bruce (S.Africa)+ Anna Saunders (Cheltenham Poetry Festival Organiser), Carolyn Findlay (Cheltenham Poetry Festival) & Jim Sells (Premier League Reading Stars/National Literacy Trust.) + Sarah Wardle (Spurs poet in residence)+ loads of good personal friends- but we need loads more ..so please come on !

2; SOS – SAVE OUR SITE APPEAL by Simon Icke (Scroll Down to 2)
Please read Simon’s ‘Save Our Site’ appeal below.

1 DONATIONS NEWS March 14 Up-date.
Please send anythting you can spare it all counts. Do include an email /snail-mail / postal adress so we can thank you. Last week we received 100 Euros from Italy ! A certain loyal poet and Everton fan, no names being given away here but we thank you so much DJ!

Cheques payable to: The Football Poets
Email : The Football Poets (editors@footballpoets.org)

Write to: Crispin Thomas, The Editor, The Football Poets,
4 The Retreat, Butterow Stroud Glos.GL5 2LS UK.
Tel 01453 757376 Mob: 07837 798463

All suggestions technicial advice, sponsor suggestions etc; welcome. email The Football Poets (editors@footballpoets.org)

ABOUT THE SITE

The Football Poets is 12 years old now and has been struggling for some time .The site is extremely large and written in old technology (ASP) and currently houses over 13,750 published poems. We have to look at a complete re-vamp in order for the site to survive. We carry the cost of annual hosting, but other than that there is no budget for anything.

FOOTBALL POETS ON TWITTER
Launched March 2012. Tweet us and follow us now at :
www.twitter.com/FootballPoets

We need ALL of your help (there’s a few thousand of you) to keep this Football Poets website alive by following us on Twitter and Facebook It will help a lot with funding applications and appeals for support.

Thanks to all ‘Followers’ so far. Football Poet ‘followers / tweeters’ who are ‘following’ us so far are: Emdad Rahman, Emily Williams, Alan McKean (poetinthegarret) Rosemary Dun and Kevin Halls. If you tweet anyone about us, please include the shortened Twitter URL link to direct people to the Football Poets website
http://nlt.li/z7L3UL

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2 SOS SAVE OUR SITE APPEAL by Simon Icke. March 2012

Important message from Simon Icke
Unpaid political writer, campaigner & poet March 2012

“S.O.S. ( Save Our Site) Calling all football/soccer poets, football fans and people interested in promoting literacy and poetry, especially linking poetry with a subject they love; Football! Football! Football!.. this is the world’s original and by far the largest football poetry web site. It has received thousands of entries over the years and hundreds of thousands of unique visitors to the site; it is loved by Football poets worldwide and thousands of poems from the site have been filed for safe keeping by the British Library:

British Library Link:
www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/target/120341

This is a grass roots poetry initiative that has survived for 12 years without funding from any source and it now deserves the support of government and commercial organisations in order to survive , in fact anyone who might be interested in Football or poetry or both; like thousands of people who already value and contributed to this football poetry site in the past. It would be a massive loss to both football and to grass roots poetry if this website were to fold due to lack of funding.

Please contact Crispin Thomas (one of the original creators and editors of this website) direct if you can offer any advice or support or at least know others who might be interested in coming to their rescue.”

Cheques payable to: The Football Poets
Email : Crispin Thomas- The Football Poets (editors@footballpoets.org)

Write to:
Mr Crispin Thomas, The Football Poets,
4 The Retreat, Butterow Stroud Glos.GL5 2LS UK.
Tel 01453 757376 Mob: 07837 798463

Thank you

Simon Icke
Email address: poetsimon@aol.com
or just click here to email: Simon Icke

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WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT FOOTBAL POETS …..

“The only known collective of football poets in the world”
Today BBC Radio 4.

“The beautiful game in all its guises . In the street, in the ground, in the memory, in the heart . Poetry with balls! ” Michael Foreman

“Wacky funny and downright mad..but also serious ” Kick It Out

“One of the pioneers of football poetry. Who ate all the pioneers? ”
Attila The Stockbroker

A SHORT HISTORY ……..

Founded by Stuart Butler and our ex-webmaster Dave Cockcroft in June 2000 whose totally un-funded vision was achieved along with Crispin Thomas who with his drive and enthusiasm has kept the site as a living breathing adjunct to the wonderful world of Football, where who visit get to daub their own little mascara’d touches to the face of the Beautiful Game.

During these past 12 years the site has survived with 5 editors; Crispin, Stuart, Parry Maguire, Peter Goulding and Clik . For the past 7 years we have been without a webmaster and with no funding but have inherited and sustained a wonderful yet antiquated site which still runs even if wildly un-modernised, like some old but much-loved football ground.

There are on the site, poems about every aspect of Football, and also how Football reaches into people’s lives, in so many different ways. We take pride in the fact that we try to encourage fans of every age, gender, race, creed, colour, physiology and social standing to embrace the world of Football in poetry.

INVOLVEMENTS /INITIATIVES MEDIA & BEYOND

Along the way , we have worked alongside, been associated/ aligned/appeared with and recognised by many worthy social initiatives to further encourage those aspirations including (in no particular order) :
‘Kick It Out’, ‘The British Council’ ,’National Literacy Trust, ‘Playing For Success’ ‘Kick Into Reading’,’ Reading The Game’, ‘Reading is Fundamental’, ‘Show Racism the Red Card’, ‘Word Up’, ‘Football Unites, Racism Divides’, ‘Give Us Back Our Game’ , ‘Philosophy Football’, ‘Dads Against Drugs ‘ , ‘Read A Million Words’, ‘The Guardian’, ‘The Independent’, ‘The Telegraph’, ‘They Think It’s All Over’ ‘When Saturday Comes’,’Match of The Day 2′ ‘Inside Out’ BBC 1 TV, ‘BBC Radio 5 Live’, ‘Sky Sports’, ‘BBC Radio Gloucestershire’ ‘Cheltenham Festival of Literature, ‘Cheltenham Poetry Festival’, ‘Glastonbury Festival’, ‘Stroud Fringe Festival’, ‘Larmer Tree Festival’, ‘Marlborough Jazz Festival ‘ ,and of course ‘The British Library’ who archived us for posterity as one of only 1000 recommended sites and for which we are very proud.

EDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENTS LOCAL & GLOBAL

We know we have a global reach, there are poems on the website from every continent on the planet. Our biggest restriction is that we can only currently accept poems in English.

We are also a conduit for countless schools, colleges and educational establishments across the globe – many of whom have sent in the fruits of their wonderful efforts. What a great vibrant contribution they make & also the community initiatives with poetic contributions from clubs we have directly inspired including Chelsea FC, Reading, Portsmouth, Cambridge United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and West Ham Utd (ELG) to name but a few..

In addition to extensive work in the UK at football clubs and comminutles Crispin has also along the way been invited by the British Council to perform and run workshops in Germany during the World Cup and in Porto at theri offcies and in ‘secondaria’ schools .

We are indebted to the many people who have championed the site including Jim Sells of The National Literacy Trust, Suzi Raymond and Wendy of Chelsea FC ,Peter Daniel of Westmister Archives, Jude at Fulham FC, Jennie at Reading SSC ,Piara Power and Lord Ousley at Kick it Out, Show Racism The Red Card, Football Unites Racism Divides and Liam Murtagh of King Edward V1 Morperth..we thank you .

Alongside its online presence and undoubted contribution to raising literacy standards Crispin has performed, run workshops and inspired hundreds of enthralled students at the following
Football Club Study Support Centres : AFC Telford, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea FC, Charlton Athletic, Colchester United, Everton, Forest Green Rovers, Fulham FC, Lincoln City, Mansfield Town, Nothampton Town, Portsmouth, Plymouth Argyle, Queens Park Rangers, Reading, Sheffield United, Stoke City, West Ham United & West Bromwich Albion.

There are too many individual contributors to mention – over 2000!!
The full list can be seen under the ‘Poets’ link and there are certainly many, more people who read and enjoy the poems on the website, including sections of the media, who have refercned us on many occasions and also make enquiries from time to time.

ANNUAL EVENTS COVERED & COMMEMORATED

We have commemorated and continue to cover annual events and anniversaries of various football tragedies, e.g. Hillsborough, Heysel, Bradford, Munich Air Crash and the Christmas Truce of 1914. The various footballing events/ major competitions. From our inception at Euro 2000 to the FA Cup, African Cup of Nations, World Cups 02, 06 & ’07 (Women’s) and more recently with World Cup 2010. We hope there’ll be plenty more inspiration for all our past, present and future contributors! Regards

Clik. Ireland (Editor 2001-Present)

“Big thanks to Clik for being there through thick and thin, most especially when my wife was very ill. Much respect also to you all for contributing to support the site with your wonderfully diverse poems. I do hope that one day day we’ll have instant translation here and an up-dated site – with much requested exciting sections for us to share.. given that football is an international language.Keep on.
Crispin Thomas Butterow. Stroud (Editor 2000-Present )

“Of all the things I’ve achieved in my life, I do take pride in the recognition and success the site has achieved – and all from a simple idea originating in the back room of a pub in Stroud in 2000”.
Stuart Butler Rodborough Stroud 1.6.10 (Editor 2000-2005 )

Here are a few of our own earliest poems and a couple from just three of our long-time contributors and supporters.

Football Time Stuart Butler – 2000
Football Stuff Crispin Thomas 2000
Desperately Immature, But.. Peter Goulding- 2003
Young Versus Old In Irwell Road. Simon Icke- 2011
The Save of The Century Kevin Raymond – 2005
The Ghosts From the Playground P Maguire – 2005

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