Southern League Side Kettering Saved From Closure By Pledges On Crowdsourcing Site

A 141-year-old English football club "may have been saved from closure thanks in part to the generosity of fans from as far afield as Iceland and Vietnam," according to David Owen of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. A "winding-up order" facing Southern League side Kettering Town, "an eighth-tier club with a long and eventful history, has been rescinded" after it agreed to pay debts thought to total close to £70,000 ($112,000). More than £20,000 ($32,000) of the funds needed to keep Kettering going "has been pledged by users of the JustGiving online fundraising platform." Details released by JustGiving show that more than 1,000 pledges of support were made, and while the vast majority came from the U.K., "as one would expect, contributions were also sourced from more exotic destinations, including Iceland, Vietnam, Greece, South Africa and Thailand" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 10/16).