Football is more than just a matter of life or death, especially on the Net. Indeed football and the Net are welded together like some primitive CB community - football fans' obsessions increase with distance and what's better than the Net for keeping them in touch with one another and the beloved object of their affections? The immediacy of being able to get the Premiership full-times, for example when you're on the other side of the globe, is a great boon to the footie addict. But football and the Web is not just about keeping up with the Shearers and Mersons of this world. It's a coupling which can also extend the natural reach of your local club far beyond just those who are around in the flesh to lend vocal support every weekend.
Some of the Irish sites are pretty impressive, especially the unofficial ones which score time and time again over those which toe the party line. Hoof, the unofficial Cork City site (www.iol.ie/ hoof) aims "to keep City fans all over the world and even in Cobh up to date on the happenings of City." And they do a very good job, with everything from great rants in the deranged Voice of The Shed section to recent match reports and news on who has joined the dreaded injury list.
But cool sites and features are not the preserve of the Dave Barry fanclub down south. Take at look at Oriel Web, the 100 percent unofficial site for Dundalk FC fans (homepage.tinet.ie/chip/template.html) for more fun and games. The design may be fairly functional throughout but it's worth a click through for the passionate condemnations of RTE's National League coverage. A typical outburst against RTE is: "Find the right presenter, preferably the guy who knows nothing about soccer apart from David Beckham's highlights." If it's a general Irish football site, you're after try www.clubi.ie/fpage which has comprehensive-information on all matters National League.
Yet Irish sites have some way to go before they catch up with the standard of something like the unofficial Galatasaray FC site in Turkey (www.algonet.se/tezcan/football). As well as a welter of statistics, you can actually catch the latest game "live" thanks to some very intrepid fans who type in and email descriptions of the action as it happens, minute by minute. Unfortunately, this colourful (I think) and fanatical coverage is in Turkish, but the online commentary is not just the preserve of our friends in Galatasaray. RealAudio commentary is available at some glossy Premiership sitess like Leeds United's (www.lufc.co.uk). As the match goes on, you can monitor the game on the pitch and, in Leeds' case, the managerial merry-goround off it. It's also a great way of keeping fans in touch with the action and actually makes them feel part of the crowd. Some sites even allow for chat windows to, let us say, disseminate terrace wisdom. And there's the small bonus that you can actually walk into your own kitchen for a cup of tea at half-time. No online meat pies though.
Away from club-specific sites, there's a welter of others from magazines like Football365 (www.football365.co.uk) and the excellent Daily Soccer (www.dailysoccer.com) to more idiosyncratic offerings. We're not sure if many football managers are online but those that are should bookmark the football transfer information site homepages.enterprise.net/srt/trfr.html). Here, you get a club-by-club rundown of who's on the transfer list, their vital statistics and, most important of all, why they're on the list - Everton's John Spencer is apparently trying to leave Goodison Park after an insult from the chairman.
If you want a Fiver in the electronic post every weekday at 5 p.m. or so, register at football.guardian.co.uk/football for a daily dose of the latest soccer news. The Guardian site itself is lively and up-to-the-minute.
Then, there are the player sites. It's unlikely that many of the players have had a hand in developing them; it would be interesting to see what their reactions to these online creations would be. Doubtless, Ronaldo would be quite chuffed with his unofficial site (www.geocities.com /Colosseum/Field/6291/), containing as it does nothing but purple prose and brill movies of his goals during the World Cup. Hotel rooms and convulsions don't get a look in. There are even a few sites, which we forbear to list here, dedicated to Matt Le Tissier including a rather odd Swedish shrine to the great man.
One site which promises quite a deal when it goes live at the start of October is From The Terrace (www.fromtheterrace.co.uk). Promising to be something akin to a gathering of the clans, From The Terrace aims to be the first and last word in what the fans of various UK clubs are thinking, talking and, more than likely, chanting. It's certainly an ambitious and expensive undertaking and the site has more than the hint of a Skinner And Baddiel sketch to it.
The relationship between football and the Web is in many ways just beginning and it will be interesting to see if the somewhat irreverent tone of the best football Websites will be maintained, especially as the alliances between the clubs and media organisations grows in strength. We're already anticipating the day when some Irish ISP or TV channel decides to invest in Sligo Rovers; RealAudio live from the Showgrounds?
See Planet Football in the Sports section every Monday for Website of the Week
Jim Carroll: fierce@tinet.ie