Anyone making rash predictions about the internet risks looking silly. So to avoid that possibility we asked four people invovled in football websites to do it for us

1. What has been good about football on the web so far?
AP: The original philosophy behind the internet was to open up a brave new world of communication. It’s fallen short of that, but in the case of football, there has at least been an extension of the supporter’s voice and the principle that first inspired fanzines.
PC: It has got the readers so much more involved than they have been before, outside fanzines – but web­sites reach far more people, far more often. We publish as much as 3,000 words of letters a day. You can look at the readership figures for different sec­tions, too, and assess what works and what doesn’t in an objective way rather than on a hunch. Statistics are a lot faster and more user friendly. Oh, and it’s great to buy match tickets, especially for games abroad.
UHL: The availability of information. Looking for simple but obscure things concerning foreign coun­tries was a major undertaking five years ago, but it often takes less than a minute today. And there really is such a thing as a, whisper the now-dreaded word, “community”. I have never been in touch with so many football fans from so many different places. And there really are communities that are not being spoon-fed and/or directed by the clubs.
BL: Fans can get news on teams they follow without needing to live in that country or learn another lan­guage; and those who travel to games can find out how to get tickets and where to stay. Football is global and the web allows the insularity of the main­stream Eng­lish media to be ignored.

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The football website intended to bring extensive football coverage to those in the US but as Rich Zahradnik explains the dream soon decended into a nightmare as spiralling costs and debt meant that the site had to be closed down

Football: speed, colour, noise, passion, even – when you’re lucky – dazzle. The web: click, click, click, yawn, click. Was there ever a bigger mismatch? The dotcoms are now dot-bombs and it’s become fun to bash the net. Did football gain anything from the web frenzy besides more of big media’s tentacles in the game?

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With the club failing to find somewhere suitable to relocate, the owners seem intent on cutting their losses. Ole P Pedersen explains how businessman usually expect to get their own way – but in football that's not neccessarily the case

As Wimbledon’s Norwegian owners suffer another setback in their quest for relocating the club, the battles over the club’s future have not caused much of a stir with the media in Norway. VG, Scandinavia’s biggest daily, noted in passing that Bjorn Rune Gjelsten, the main owner of Wimbledon, had again failed to move the club from its humble surroundings to “more prosperous and forward-thinking communities”.

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Wednesday 1 Villa and Newcastle are both through to their respective “finals” in the Intertoto. John Gregory seems underwhelmed by his side’s away goals win over Rennes: “If we’ve got to play in the competition then qualifying for the UEFA Cup is what it’s all about.” Barry Town beat Porto 3-1 in the second leg of their Champions League tie. The Football League deny reports that Celtic and Rangers may be invited into this season’s Worthington Cup, although League chairman Keith Harris hopes to see them included next year: “They would help spice up the competition for our sponsors and improve its appeal to the television audience.” Celtic’s 4-3 win at Old Trafford in Ryan Giggs’s testimonial is enlivened by several near-fights, most featuring David Beckham. Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar is the subject of the first-ever transfer deal between Fulham and Juventus, moving for £7 million. Portsmouth sign 1998 World Cup star Robert Prosinecki from Dinamo Zagreb.

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Steve Morgan on the ups and downs of being a Portsmouth fan

Verdict so far on the Milan Mandaric regime?
Mandaric has put his money where his mouth is. On paper, this is the strongest squad we’ve had in years – the signing of Robert Prosinecki could be a masterstroke if he loses some weight. Mandaric talks a good game too. He criticised the club for having been run along “mom and pop” lines – a spot-on analysis of the last 30 years. However, he seems a trifle impatient: rejuvenation is likely to take between five and ten years. The much-vaunted move to the goods yard adjacent to Fratton Park is no nearer fruition, although planning permission has been granted and there seem to be even more roadworks than usual at the proposed access road for it.

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