WEYMOUTH chairman Ian White has revealed that the Wessex Fantasy Football League played a big role in bringing Warren Bentley to the Terras.
The striker joined the club from Poole Town in June and was the Terras’ second new signing following fellow former Dolphins’ forward Tony Lee
“Through my little bit of fun with the Wessex Fantasy Football, that I have been running for six years now, that paid for him.
“In fact the Wessex Fantasy Football, through the club, we have to pay it through the club, is covering the whole of Warren for the whole of the season.”
White said that it gave him a lot of personal satisfaction to have helped in this way with the Wessex Fantasy Football, which also helped sign Brandon Goodship the previous summer.
White said: “That was a great pleasure for me, I really enjoyed being able to do that and that was with the World Cup competition.”
The money was not entirely raised through the fantasy football, with White paying compliment to one contributor who does not wish to be named.
The fundraising initially started prior to the end of last season, with Weymouth looking for attacking reinforcement late on in the season.
White said: “If you remember at the end of last season we put an appeal in because we had a couple of injuries and we were trying to find ourselves a wide player or an attacking player.
“One of the good things about the management team is that they will not just go for anybody they know who they want and they look for the right people.”
As a result of not finding anyone the club offered money back to people who tried to help fund the reinforcement but every fan turned around and told them to keep it, prompting White to describe them as ‘a brilliant set of supporters.’
White put on a special version of the fantasy football for the World Cup which helped raise further funding and so far White is delighted with what he has seen so far.
White said: “He looks very sharp, when the opportunity came and my director of football Paul Maitland rang up and said look there is a chance we could get Warren then it was all systems go.
“So like with Brandon last year, who the Wessex Fantasy Football contributed hugely to last year, and we all know where that ended with 38 goals.
“So I am hoping it is going to happen with Warren, I am really looking forward to seeing him play.”
