Rivals.net is rumoured to be the latest casualty in the credit crunch, I feel that I am more than adequately qualified to comment on its demise as in 2000 I was one of the founder editors of the project.

In late December 1999 I was approached by a mob from London wanting to create a new online global portal called "Rub of the Green". At the time, I was editing To Ell and Back the paper version and Leeds United were then big news, riding high in the Premiership and amongst the favourites to win the league after Manchester United buggered off to Brazil. We were also beating top European sides for fun in the UEFA Cup before tragedy struck in Istanbul.

I assume one of their researches had wandered along to the now defunct Sportspages in Charing Cross Road (they went bust owing me money btw!) and picked up a copy of what was, back then, the most interesting and best value for money fanzine on the market!

I honestly had not had a clue how to mark-up HTML, run a website, marketing or anything like that. I was reassured because a team of crack individuals down in London would "sort it out". A draft contract arrived just before Christmas and the "bumpf" was beyond my wildest dreams!

It then evolved into part of  Rivals.com which at the time was a massive US sports Pan Network rated nearly as "sticky" (tech term for repeat visitors) than ebay. It was all hush hush and hugely exciting. However having had a lawyer friend go over the finer details of the contract, he was not convinced it was a good deal and warned me I could effectively sign over "my life" to these geezers in the smoke I had never met. His interpretation was that they could expect me to travel at my own expense to every game involving Leeds in the world.

Ala Don Revie, I donned my blue-suit and one Tuesday around around Easter 2000 I went down to London on the train to meet "the boys". They were holed up in some office off Freston Road and were then, I believed, backed by Chrysalis. I felt more reassured having put a name to faces such as Ryan Herman (who was a Liverpool fan but I had spotted him in my Sky TV magazine in a Chelsea shirt proclaiming to be the Chelsea Magazine Editor - I gave him some pelters but he reassured me he did it just to take some of Ken Bates's cash - fair enough!). Dan Davies was another member of the team, a Liverpool fan who had survived Hillsborough. There was a guy called Tom, who was a Leeds fan, so I signed up and thought "sod the consequences".

Obviously I cannot recall how much they were paying me!!! but it was a comfortable second-income. A fixed rate for doing the site and the same for my dial-up internet costs, which were minimal because I did most of my updates at work - until my bosses son got a huge phone bill and threatened to sack and sue me! Luckily I left six-weeks later.

However even before the end of the 2000/01 season, which was Rivals inaugural year, I detected something was not quite right. Within months of the luanch I attended a hastily arranged meeting in a grotty Birmingham hotel where the Rivals crew announced they were changing the terms of the contract from a fixed-payment to a payment based on "how-many-hits" you got and they would supply "free dial up". However due to "Bowyer and Woodgate" my income streams were not that badly hit! however it was at a personal cost. One Friday night during the first trial after Michael Duberry took the witness stand and appeared to change his evidence, I was stuck for six-hours monitoring the message board that night as there was some proper vile abuse coming our way directed by those so-called Leeds fans infuriated by Dubs "turning Queens" and outsiders who thought this was yet another example of our loathed club being rotten to the core.

I then realised that Leeds United were no longer everyone's favourite team as they had briefly been when David O'Leary had first took over.

The demise of Rivals in my opinion followed the demise of Leeds United. Rivals.com crashed, Chrysalis dumped them, there was another tinkering of the contracts and one-by-one the guys in London seemed to move on to pastures new. One day, I tried to log-on but there was no internet access. After several phone calls I found out that the London office had been shut and the operation had moved out to South Africa where two guys were running the show.

Despite what many people think, I did not make much money out of it (I live in a council house!!!). I began working as a Railway Guard in Manchester and the shifts played havoc with being able to update the site, as well as having a young family. More importantly some numpties wrote some vile things about the death of Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight which went unnoticed for several days and amongst Leeds fans and the creators of WACCOE I became public enemy number one, well not quite as Peter Ridsdale took that mantle however it was immensely unpleasant to be called "scum" by your own fans even though I was utterly remorseful at missing the vile abuse posted about Kev and Chris. I think it is fair to say however that my "friends" at WACCOE soon realised that running a website was not easy.

By the end of 2003/04 I had enough. Relegation from the Prem sickened me. My long-term relationship collapsed and I was estranged from my three-sons (thankfully we managed to sort things out and I've now got four lads-all Leeds fans of course!), I lost my job (didn't miss Manchester!!!) and decided to do something for me for once, which was go into education having left with five modest GCSE's. I took a social sciences access to HE course and eventually graduated with an honours degree in Law from Nottingham Trent University.

Tim Whelan stepped into the void, steadied the ship then moved on with other publishes to create clubfanzine where the toellandback brand lives on to this day twelve years after I first created it.

Where did it go wrong for Rivals? well at the outset back in 2000 when they lost millions, I thought they tried to do things too quickly. Yes there was a market for a global network "by the fans, for the fans" (we had Soccernet etc but they were written by journo's with no love for the club) however they seemed to be intent in signing up publishers beyond the Prem and Football League. They went after non-league clubs and then they moved into France and Germany. They also signed up F1 and extreme sports, it was too much too soon.

The growth in blogging and unofficial sites means there are literally thousands of unofficial sites out there. I also felt that Rivals were slow to keep up with technology, obviously much of this was down to copyright. Eventually Sky took them over and have now decided to pull the plug.

I am tinged with sadness. I feel for the publishers who have been dumped. It is bloody hard work going to matches then spending your Saturday nights uploading the content! Nine years ago, I was filled with hope that my inane witterings about the club I love would have some kudos in the media! It opened doors for me, I got a Press Card out of it, I did SkySports Fanzone (before Yeboah Constrictor in the Jimmy Saville wig - but not as good as him!) and met Peter Ridsdale in March 2003 just weeks before he quit as chairman in a mind blowing, transparent meeting where he blew the lid off many of the rumblings going on at the club (although he did not go into the details of how much in the shit we were financially and even declared he got on well with Terry Venables just days before he sacked him!). Think I still have the tapes somewhere, although most of it has John Boocock going on about communication!

It was mostly fun doing Rivals.net, at the beginning there was some monumental piss-ups (including one in the Kensington Hilton), met some top people including Dave Johnstone of the Chelsea Independant (Bates tried to sue him and had to settle out of court!) and I might as well let you into a secret, I had Mel Sterland all primed for a column/interview until the bastards in London pulled the plug, well my so-called "Leeds friend" Tom did because he simply never rated "Zico" as a player! So much for creative licence!

I've noticed other sites with less-morals putting out pleas for former Rivals.net readers to join up with them. I am sure we do not have to do this at toellandback and I am genuinely sorry that something I was once proud to be part of does not exist anymore.

Photo: Action Images

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