Soccer fever: A fan's life-long passion plays out on the Net

For fans across Britain, the name of the game is football, not soccer. To British citizens worldwide, it is what baseball is to America: a national pastime. And like baseball, for each fan there is a team that shines bright. For sports blogger Damian Dugdale, this is the Aston Villa Football Club.

Dugdale started his blog about the Aston Villa Football Club, a team located in Birmingham, England, in July of 2005. He decided to create the blog after he began getting more and more visitors to his personal website when he posted weekly articles about his favored team.

"I’ve supported Aston Villa all my life and have actively been involved in supporter groups," said Dugdale. "It felt natural to start writing about the club."

When he created the site however, he didn’t expect the huge response he would get. By August, the site had over 1,000,000 hits, and Dugdale says he expects 1,500,000 this month if the site keeps progressing as it has.

The site owes much of its popularity to dedication of the football fans, Dugdale said. It provides a forum for fans to submit and read news, personal opinions and speculation about the team.

"I'd like to think that when somebody reads something on the site that the opinion, thought or point of view is something they can relate to, as we are supporters," Dugdale said.

Besides being what Dugdale says is "accurate and to the point," the site is on top of the news. This summer, it was the first to break the news that an England international player was leaving Aston Villa -- a tidbit of information Dugdale contributes to the site's growing network of contacts.

"We're not writing about something that isn't really of interest to us; we're writing about something we're deeply passionate about," Dugdale said. "Because of this we probably know a little bit more about the subject than a reporter for a daily newspaper or general football website who has got another 10 articles to write about 10 different teams."

There are five active contributors to the site, including Dugdale. There is also a fan opinion category where readers can get their e-mails published. Dugdale said they "actively promote readers to send in their opinions" and provide access details on publishing articles for those interested in contributing on a more regular basis.

"The site is there for any Aston Villa fan to write about the team and express their opinion," Dugdale said. "It's an opportunity to write what they think about the football club we all love."

As for plans of the future, Dugdale said he would like to offer host blogs for supporters of other teams, which he says will "create a nice open feeling."

And with all the talk of football, is Dugdale a player himself?

"All Englishmen play football, and we all could have played for our team!" Dugdale said.

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