Members of Blackpool FC fans' message board join forces to sponsor club's new signing in bid to help Seasiders through crippling financial times

Posters on the Another View From The Tower (AVFTT) forum came up with the idea to sponsor Icelandic defender Daniel Gretarsson, setting an initial target of £420 which was reached in under 24 hours.

At the time of writing, £605 had been raised for the initiative - a total increasing at an impressive rate - with further plans to sponsor a second player also mooted.

The man behind the initiative is Pool fan Gareth White, known as GJJW on the message board.

“At the moment all lower league clubs are in unprecedented times, with money not coming in from fans, match days etc,” he explained to The Gazette.

“It’s very tough for all clubs and I guess that any penny counts right now.

“We are very fortunate at Blackpool to have an owner in Simon Sadler who has put his money where his mouth is.

“Investing in not only the playing side of the club, but the entire infrastructure – be it the stadium, training ground, shop etc - he really believes that the football club is the heart of the community, as do the supporters - for the first time in a long time.

“The fans believe we are all in this together and working to the same goals.

“To support the owner and the board, I think it’s important to contribute in whatever way we as supporters can, especially as we cannot attend and contribute on match days at the moment.

“So, I decided to ask the AVFTT community to contribute towards sponsoring a player. We met that target within 24 hours.

“They really are a great and generous bunch. We are now well on our way to meeting our second target of being able to sponsor two players.

“We decided to sponsor Daniel Gretarsson first as he’s a long way from home, moving to a new country and league, so I guess we want to make him feel really welcome and at home.

“Our very own Icelandic Viking!”

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