Doesn't it Make You Smile When Bookies Lose?

For the second day in a row there's a wacky story coming out of the English soccer (should I feel guilty for not calling it football?) circuit.

This time it concerns Weymouth FC of the Blue Square Premiere League...whatever the hell that is.

Apparently the club has been in some amount of financial trouble for the past little while and several of the first-team players refused to play this past Saturday's match versus Rushden & Diamonds because of a lack of medical insurance.

This meant that Weymouth would need to field its' junior squad, turning what would have been a well balanced game pitting two very average, middle of the pack teams, into something of a joke.

The only problem here is that the Weymouth fans caught wind of this latest development before the local bookmakers did.

Eventually the bookies slashed the odds of the game after realizing that significantly more money than usual was being placed on Rushden & Diamonds. But by this point it was too late.

Fans of the team which draws no more than 1,000 fans to it's games reportedly took well over 1 million pounds in winnings (somewhere around 1.8 million Canadian dollars) after Weymouth was dominated 9-0 (thats nine to nothing...not nine-nill...again, we're writing in North America here).

Trying to take advantage, perhaps, of this recent windfall for some of it's fans, the team has gone ahead and posted on their website links to buy shares of the squad and other fundraising efforts.

I can't think of a better way to spend my gambling winnings than on the team I bet against in the first place because it was so cash-strapped.

How cash strapped exactly, you ask?

This is a recent news release from the team:

York City supporters’ group the York Minstermen are to sponsor the transport costs of Weymouth fans when the two teams meet at Bootham Crescent on Saturday 28th February.

“We have sent a cheque to Weymouth FC Supporters’ Club to cover the cost of their minibus to Saturday’s game,” said York Minstermen chairman Frank Ormston.


When your team can't even afford a ride to the game that it's playing...man these are some tough times. At least we know the fans will be sitting pretty.