Dear Faithful Football Fans,
First and foremost I would like to apologize for not responding to the
hundreds of emails I have received daily since the closure of footofgod.com.
I am alone and just cannot manage to individually answer each of your touching
emails, asking me what is going on in my struggle against FIFA to resurrect
footofgod.com. Being a fan like you I am so frustrated and sad that FIFA forced
me to closedown this site, that brought so many memories of the beautiful game
back to all of us at the click of a mouse.
My name is Kadima Lonji and I founded and launched footofgod.com on Dec 6,
2000, as an online archive where fans could send-in, organize, view and find
all the greatest football footage ever filmed in one central location. I never
had any intention of making money or a profit and in fact ploughed US$70,000 of
my own money into the venture. That sum was all my savings, but I wanted to give
something back to the game that had given me so much joy for so many years.
So I decided to give the game a gift from one football obsessive to the millions
of worldwide football fans with a love for the game and an internet connection.
In two short months the site became the top online destination for soccer fans
seeking video clips of football moments from the beginning of video history.
With over 3000 clips available for download the popularity of footofgod.com was
overwhelming (over 100,000 visitors were downloading some 500,000 clips every
week). With the threat of not having the resources to support the site by myself,
I decided to send a plea out to FIFA's president Joseph Sepp Blatter asking his
organization to take over the site from me for "free" so that fans could continue
to enjoy this wonderful site. In response on Feb 12 I received a stern letter
from FIFA demanding that I take the service offline immediately or face legal
action. In the face of such mighty opposition, I had no choice but to comply. I
was so saddened by their action against me, in light of my offer of good will. I
harbored no bad motives and was ready and willing to help them relaunch the site
under their name and with their blessing.
As word of the site closing spread throughout the world, dozens of sites, journals,
magazines and newspapers wrote wonderful articles of support pleading for the return
of footofgod.com. For the past several months I have tried fruitlessly to contact
authorities at FIFA/ISL, to see if they would consider resurrecting footofgod.com,
and every time I would get no reply.
At the same time that this was going on I was surprised to find that as soon as
I closed the site I began to receive hundreds of emails every day from fans
crying out for the return of the site and expressing their anger at the situation.
Since the closure of the site on Feb 15, over 25,000 fans have sent emails with
words of support and questions about what is going to happen. This surprisingly
strong show of support finally clicked in my head. I understood how I was going
to make FIFA listen. I am only one guy to them (and that is ok if they don't
listen to me) but they cannot ignore their fans. In light of this I have decided
to organize a peaceful 30-day campaign to collect one million emails from fans
around the world to prove to FIFA that footofgod.com is what fans want and that
it is their duty to listen to the fans even if they do not listen to me.
I know from your emails that many of you are furious at the situation but I
believe that we need show FIFA and the world that we know what "Fair Play" really
means. Just like a classy player who has been brutally fouled by an opponent, we
will shrug-off our emotions of frustration and put our hand out once more to FIFA
so that they can help lift us back up and allow the game to continue.
This is what I am proposing to make FIFA listen. The campaign will be called the
"One Million Email March to Save Footofgod.com". I need every single one of you
to help me collect as many emails from friends and other football fans who would
support the return footofgod.com under a lawful body like FIFA. The campaign's
objective will be to use the 30 days (starting on May 1 and ending on May 31) to
collect one million emails from football fans from around the world. Please send
the emails that you collect, from football supporters, to the following address:
[email protected]
Every day for 30 days I will update the site with a sum total of all the emails
we collectively have amassed to date. This campaign will not be an aggressive
campaign against FIFA but a peaceful and symbolic show from fans that we simply
want to be heard. Anybody can help compile emails and send them-in either to the
email address above or by coming to the site and sending in an email of support
from the footofgod.com site. Every single email will be valuable.
Your collective support in this peaceful million email campaign should make FIFA
take notice, and ultimately make them listen. Footofgod.com is not FIFA's enemy.
I know that all you people who have sent me emails really care about the game so
being part of this effort should resonate strongly with you. Please support me in
my effort to engage FIFA so that footofgod.com can once more be reality for all of
us. This is not mine or FIFA's site, it belongs to you the fans, the true and
greatest supporters of the game of football.
Sincerely
Kadima Lonji
[email protected]
.
First and foremost I would like to apologize for not responding to the
hundreds of emails I have received daily since the closure of footofgod.com.
I am alone and just cannot manage to individually answer each of your touching
emails, asking me what is going on in my struggle against FIFA to resurrect
footofgod.com. Being a fan like you I am so frustrated and sad that FIFA forced
me to closedown this site, that brought so many memories of the beautiful game
back to all of us at the click of a mouse.
My name is Kadima Lonji and I founded and launched footofgod.com on Dec 6,
2000, as an online archive where fans could send-in, organize, view and find
all the greatest football footage ever filmed in one central location. I never
had any intention of making money or a profit and in fact ploughed US$70,000 of
my own money into the venture. That sum was all my savings, but I wanted to give
something back to the game that had given me so much joy for so many years.
So I decided to give the game a gift from one football obsessive to the millions
of worldwide football fans with a love for the game and an internet connection.
In two short months the site became the top online destination for soccer fans
seeking video clips of football moments from the beginning of video history.
With over 3000 clips available for download the popularity of footofgod.com was
overwhelming (over 100,000 visitors were downloading some 500,000 clips every
week). With the threat of not having the resources to support the site by myself,
I decided to send a plea out to FIFA's president Joseph Sepp Blatter asking his
organization to take over the site from me for "free" so that fans could continue
to enjoy this wonderful site. In response on Feb 12 I received a stern letter
from FIFA demanding that I take the service offline immediately or face legal
action. In the face of such mighty opposition, I had no choice but to comply. I
was so saddened by their action against me, in light of my offer of good will. I
harbored no bad motives and was ready and willing to help them relaunch the site
under their name and with their blessing.
As word of the site closing spread throughout the world, dozens of sites, journals,
magazines and newspapers wrote wonderful articles of support pleading for the return
of footofgod.com. For the past several months I have tried fruitlessly to contact
authorities at FIFA/ISL, to see if they would consider resurrecting footofgod.com,
and every time I would get no reply.
At the same time that this was going on I was surprised to find that as soon as
I closed the site I began to receive hundreds of emails every day from fans
crying out for the return of the site and expressing their anger at the situation.
Since the closure of the site on Feb 15, over 25,000 fans have sent emails with
words of support and questions about what is going to happen. This surprisingly
strong show of support finally clicked in my head. I understood how I was going
to make FIFA listen. I am only one guy to them (and that is ok if they don't
listen to me) but they cannot ignore their fans. In light of this I have decided
to organize a peaceful 30-day campaign to collect one million emails from fans
around the world to prove to FIFA that footofgod.com is what fans want and that
it is their duty to listen to the fans even if they do not listen to me.
I know from your emails that many of you are furious at the situation but I
believe that we need show FIFA and the world that we know what "Fair Play" really
means. Just like a classy player who has been brutally fouled by an opponent, we
will shrug-off our emotions of frustration and put our hand out once more to FIFA
so that they can help lift us back up and allow the game to continue.
This is what I am proposing to make FIFA listen. The campaign will be called the
"One Million Email March to Save Footofgod.com". I need every single one of you
to help me collect as many emails from friends and other football fans who would
support the return footofgod.com under a lawful body like FIFA. The campaign's
objective will be to use the 30 days (starting on May 1 and ending on May 31) to
collect one million emails from football fans from around the world. Please send
the emails that you collect, from football supporters, to the following address:
[email protected]
Every day for 30 days I will update the site with a sum total of all the emails
we collectively have amassed to date. This campaign will not be an aggressive
campaign against FIFA but a peaceful and symbolic show from fans that we simply
want to be heard. Anybody can help compile emails and send them-in either to the
email address above or by coming to the site and sending in an email of support
from the footofgod.com site. Every single email will be valuable.
Your collective support in this peaceful million email campaign should make FIFA
take notice, and ultimately make them listen. Footofgod.com is not FIFA's enemy.
I know that all you people who have sent me emails really care about the game so
being part of this effort should resonate strongly with you. Please support me in
my effort to engage FIFA so that footofgod.com can once more be reality for all of
us. This is not mine or FIFA's site, it belongs to you the fans, the true and
greatest supporters of the game of football.
Sincerely
Kadima Lonji
[email protected]
.
