Today I met with Jimmy Adjovi Bocco, one of the founders and the General Manager for Diambars International. It is with great pleasure I see that Diambars has achieved great results with students and football players in both Senegal and South Afrtica over the last 10 years. They are now looking to expand their involvment to more African countries. Jimmy will be meeting the presidencies for these countries in the coming months.

Their model for educating youth based on their passion for football is showing financial sustainability, as the football clubs hiring their players needs to pay educational fees. In addition the Diambars Institute hires all their employees (except some teachers) locally in and around Saly. This leads to the continued financial growth and  increased  employment in the community.

I also met a 23 year old Diambars student called Aly. He grew up as an orphan in poverty - but had a dream of becoming a proffesional fotballer. He saw a video from Diambars in a shop windows some years ago, and decided that he should try to get a place in the school and was accepted.

He managed this - despite his average football skills. Now he is studying IT in Paris and is no longer dreaming of being a proffesional footballer, but rather to help other kids in the situation he grew up, through completing his education and contributing with his skills, effort and knowledge in Senegal. This is a perfect example on what the goals of Diambars are 

The institute in Senegal is now also hosting and educating girls. They are looking for a more permanent solution than todays internships, but this needs more planning and time - to make this part of the school sustainable as well.  The Girls Project is the part of Diambars to which ManagerLeague has and will contribute. We agreed the next transferral of funds will be taking place when they have decided and planned a permanent solution for the Diambars Girls School. I hope that many of you will contribute with credit donations to the Diambars (Team:31641). All donated credits will be converted to cash by Fifth Season.

But, Diambars International also needs some more help. As many of you have noted, their English web site has not been updated for ages. The web site is administered by students in France and updated frequently - however, they do not speak English - and Diambars International does not have the money to hire translators as all their earnings are dedicated to the educational projects. I hope that we in our community can find one volunteer that is fluent in English and French is able to help them. Payment will be done in ManagerLeague credits from me! Anyone who has the required skills and wants to contribute can PM me.

Thanks to all of you who has supported the project so far!

Regards
Chairman

 The online browser-game ManagerLeague is entering its 100th online season. Since the launch of the game in September 2005 almost 1.000.000 people from over 180 countries have played the game. Today, there are 45.000 active players, and the 'oldest' players have been with the game since launch.

 Developer Christian Lassem says: 'The fact that we've managed to entertain so many people for so many years is a clear indication that there are a lot of people out there with a passion for manager-games. We work continuously on improving our product to satisfy an increasingly demanding audience. Since the launch of the game we have revised the match simulator 14 times. In addition, we have made major revisions to the graphics, the user interface, tactical options and the transfer market. The constant rejuvenation of the game has contributed to keeping players interested, and I'm hoping that the surprises we have planned for season 100 will add to that.'

 ManagerLeague is a football manager game that uses virtual players, rather than actual players. Your abilities as a manager determine the development and success of both your players and the team as a whole. The matches are played in both a league system and a cup system involving players from all over the globe. Two matches are played each weekday, and each season lasts four weeks.

About Fifth Season AS

 Fifth Season was founded in Oslo in 1999, and is developing and maintaining web-based massively multi-player online games. The company has at present 4 employees.

 Planetarion was the first game released by Fifth Season in 2000. This browser-based game was a huge success, and had, at its peak, over 180.000 active players, which was more than 3 times more than any competitors. The game was later sold to another company.

 ManagerLeague was launched in 2005, and is still played by thousands of players all over the world.

 In 2010, the company began work on its third title, the sci-fi game AD2460. It is set to reinvent and reboot the genre originally defined by Planetarion. AD2460 is expected to launch in 2013.

A few days of my life - impressions for a lifetime

Upon departure for Saly in Senegal last Monday, I was very excited. Excited about what would meet me. How would I respond to what I was about to see? Today is Saturday, and I am back in Norway. Very happy for being back, and extremely grateful for myself and my children growing up here in a safe environment, with social systems and schools giving us the opportunity to choose to realize our dreams.

What we saw in Senegal was a lot of the opposite. Not many schools, an everyday fight to get food and shelter, but still children (and grown ups) with a smile around their face combined with a friendliness impossible to describe. Today I feel a lot richer in life, knowing that myself and the ManagerLeague community have seized the possibility to help some of these people in getting a life with dignity and where they can provide for their families.

Diambars is based on giving children education through their passion for football. Children tend to dream about their future; a future where they are champions in life. Not everyone can become football champions, and those who lack the required skills, will still get an education, in order to become champions of life. In the school, one hour of football, means one hour of studying theory as well. No school – no football!

The institute in Saly is now self sustainable, meaning that the running costs are covered by the income the institute generates. The school now employs 80 people locally! The next step is now to start building the girls-school and “satellites” on 16 different locations in Senegal. These satellites will be able to host 200 students every day, giving 3200 people daily education. The girls-school that will be build next to the boys-school, needs to find a model on how to cover the running costs through operations or additional funding.

We had a ceremony on Wednesday where we launched the start of this project. Some of the girls who will attend the school was there and had a football session with some of the female players on the Norwegian National team. The pride and gratefulness they showed was fantastic. I held a short speech after the match and the project has now officially started.

On Thursday, we went for a trip to see how the inhabitants lived. We saw a lot of poverty and some sights I will never forget. Yet, again, the friendliness of the people was still there. We have a lot to learn from this culture.

We also visited the Tromsø player "Kara"s home. His family brought us straight in to their house and showed us their new living room with a new sofa and a picture of Kara in his Tromsø football shirt as the only picture on the wall.

Shortly after, the whole family and our group of people where dancing to African rhythms and singing on their doorstep – absolutely fantastic (and not possible to describe)! As he has become a professional footballer, he is now also able to secure the future for his family back home in Senegal. Karas signing has also given valuable income to the Diambars Institute.

In the end this all leads to me asking myself – how can we contribute more? The most important thing we can do is  giving money to secure a future for the next generations by building schools and providing jobs. In addition to that, our clothes that we do not use anymore is very much needed. Many people do not have proper clothing and I am sure that we throw away a lot of clothes that would be seen as luxury items in Senegal.

The clothes are difficult for us to organize through ManagerLeague, but I know that both I, personally, and Fifth Season will continue to support Diambars and to make sure that the girls-school will give education to Senegalese girls with a passion for life and football! I am proud of all the donations coming from our community so far, and I hope that I can be equally proud next time I go to visit the Diambars academy!

My speech:

I have a dream, about life. Children have dreams, about their future!

Making these dreams come through is often a question of getting the right education. You need education to become a doctor, you need education to become a footballer. What kind of education varies, but in the end, we all need education to succeed in life!

My dream is about giving both boys and girls the same opportunities to fulfill their dreams and to succeed in life. And with this school, I hope that my passion for giving equal rights to proper education, will lead to equal success in life!

So let us fulfill our dreams, both the ones about life all those about the future!

Thank you all for supporting us in supporting Diambars! Let us all continue to do so!

Yours truly, 
Chairman

Diambars bank account # for direct transfers from Norway: 9858 05 27205 (set ManagerLeague as a remark on the transfer)

We've got our first official player to reach 50 completed achievements. It's been announced for a while that we would do something special for the first player to reach this goal, and it's time to make good on those promises.

First of all, we would like to congratulate RO DreamTeam and the manager Porcus on winning our little challenge. Well done!

As it happens, David Trezeguet has donated a signed jersey to the Diambars project, who in turn have given this shirt to us. And now it will be handed over to Porcus. Below are a couple of pictures of the prize, which will be in the mail shortly.

The Diambars project is still active in ManagerLeague, and any credits donated to the team Diambars are still being converted into real money and donated to the charity. So if you still want to help out, donate a few credits to the team, and we will donate the equivalent cash for you.

I am going down to Saly in Senegal myself later this Spring to have a look at how they are doing with the new girls school.

Again, congratulations to Porcus on first to 50 achievements!

Dear Diambars friend!

It is with great pleasure I can inform you that on July 29th, during the 'celebrity match' at Norway Cup - where the proceedings also went to Diambars - could hand over a check for NOK 1 600 000 towards the construction of the girls school in Saly, Senegal. Not all the money is in yet, but if all promises are fulfilled, we will end up slightly above the mentioned sum.

This would not have been possible without the continued support of all our contributors, and I am proud to say that together we have shown that we are strong and capable of bringing good things to other people.

The construction of the school will be initiated this Autumn, and shortly thereafter the students will be selected. Thank you very much for helping us realize the construction of this school!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

In the future, we are hoping to be able to finance two students at the school every year with donations from the ManagerLeague players. This means about 100.000 credits a year. So to anyone who would like to join in our continued support, please keep donating credits.

Best Regards
Chairman

Donated Credits at 14.38, January 31st: 4 702 from at total of 146 donators

Kjære Diambars venn!

Det er med stor glede jeg kan fortelle at onsdag, 29. juli, under ”Kjendis-kampen” på Norway Cup, hvor inntektene også gikk til Diambars, kunne overrekkes presidenten i Diambars International en sjekk på NOK 1 600 000 til byggingen av jenteskolen i Saly i Senegal. Ikke alle pengene har kommet inn ennå, men med de lovnader vi har fått ender vi litt over denne summen!

Dette hadde ikke vært mulig å få til uten den støtte vi har fått fra dere og det er med stolthet jeg kan si at sammen har vi vist oss sterke og med evne til å få til fine ting for andre mennesker!

Byggingen av skolen vil igangsettes i løpet av høsten, og man vil i løpet av kort tid begynne utvelgelsen av studenter til skolen. Tusen takk for at dere har vært med på å hjelpe oss å realisere byggingen av denne skolen!¨

TUSEN HJERTELIG TAKK FOR HJELPEN!

Videre fremover har vi som mål å la to av studieplassene ved skolen være finansiert av donasjoner fra spillere i ManagerLeague. Det vil si 100.000 credits i året. Så til de som vil være med å hjelpe til videre, så er det bare å fortsette donasjonene.

Med vennlig hilsen
Chairman

Donerte credits kl 14.38 den 31. januar: 4 702 from a total of 146 donators

ManagerLeague and Fifth Season have chosen to committ themselves to Diambars (www.diambars.org). The people behind Diambars are amongst others: Bernard Lama, Jimmy Adjovi-Bco, Sae Seck and Patrick Vieira. In Norway, the work of the organization is lead by Eivor Esaiassen. The board in Norway consists of Frode Kvaerneng (chairman), Vidar Davidsen, Aage Petter Christiansen, Torild Skogsholm and Jimmy Adjovo-Boco.

Diambars utilizes soccer as a means to help young people with their education and not least give some of them the possibility of realizing their dream of becoming a professional soccer-player.

Diambars already has an active school for boys in Senegal, and it is our goal to help them gather the funds needed to establish a school for girls as well. In the long run, schools will be set up in 10 African countries. In addition, "satellite stations" will be set up to allow even more people to take part in the Diambars system of education without having to be physically present at the schools. After the schools have been built, the idea and vision is for these schools to be self-sufficient. They have already sent some of their students to colleges and universities in France. A few of the Diambars "players" are also signed with French top-division teams.

The building of the girls school is scheduled to start in October this year. Our aim is to gather 200 000 euro (NOK 1,6 million) and we have already managed to gather almost 50 000 euro! Through the sale of used and signed soccer-jerseys from some of the best players in the world we hope to get even closer to our goal (for a presentation of what's available to purchase, go here (in Norwegian).

We believe that we will get good media-coverage with this, and ManagerLeague has already contributed enough to send a "Diambars"-team to Norway Cup this Summer!

We understand that not everyone has the ability to buy the jerseys (and other items), so if you wish to contribute, you can donate credits to this team. All donations will be bought by Fifth Season and passed on to Diambars. I will update the total amount of donated credits weekly in this blog.

Donated Credits at 17.00, August 3rd: 9798 from at total of 196 donators 

ALL DONATIONS FRON NOW WILL BE LISTED IN THE POST "TO ALL DIAMBARS FRIENDS",  AS WE NOW ARE TRYING TO FINANCE TO STUDENTS EVERY YEAR THROUGH DONATIONS (100 000 CREDITS NEEDED PER YEAR)!

THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Managerleague og Fifth Season har valgt å engasjere seg i Diambars (www.diambars.org). Bak Diambars International står blant annet Bernard Lama, Jimmy Adjovi-Boco, Saer Seck og Patrick Vieira. I Norge ledes arbeidet av Eivor Esaiassen. Styret i Diambars Norge består av Frode Kværneng (styreleder), Vidar Davidsen, Åge Petter Christiansen, Torild Skogsholm og Jimmy Adjovo-Boco.

Diambars benytter fotballen som virkemiddel for å hjelpe unge mennesker med utdanning og ikke minst gi noen av dem muligheten til å realisere sin drøm om å kunne bli profesjonell fotballspiller.

De har allerede en gutteskole i drift i Senegal og nå skal vi hjelpe dem med å skaffe midler til også å realisere en jenteskole. På sikt skal det bygges skoler i 10 afrikanske land, i tillegg til "statelittstasjoner" som gjør at enda flere skal kunne ta del i Diambars utdanningsopplegg, uten at de er nødt til fysisk å være studenter på skolene! Etter at skolene er bygget, er tanken og ideen at skolene skal kunne være selvfinansierende. De har allerede sendt noen av sine studenter til universiteter og høyskoler i Frankrike, og de har også noen ”av sine spillere” på proffkontrakter i Franske toppserieklubber!

Byggingen av jenteskolen tar til i oktober i år, Vi har som målsetting å "samle inn" 1,6 millioner kroner og har allerede fått inn nesten 400 000. Gjennom salg av brukte og signerte fotballtrøyer fra noen av verdens beste fotballspillere, håper vi å kunne komme enda nærmere målet! (se presentasjonen av hva vi har for salg her) 

Vi håper og tror at vi vil få bra med mediedekning på dette, og Managerleague har allerede bidratt til at Diambars kan sende et lag som vil delta på Norway Cup i sommer!

Vi skjønner at ikke alle har råd til å kjøpe trøyer - så hvis du ønsker å bidra, kan du donore credits til dette laget. Alle donasjoner vil bli kjøpt av Fifth Season AS og gitt videre til Diambars. Jeg vil oppdatere innkomne credits ukentlig i denne bloggen frem mot sommeren!

Donerte credits kl 17.00 den 3. august:  9798 fra 196 forskjellige managere!
 

ALLE DONASJONER FRA NÅ VIL BLI "TELT OPP" I POSTEN "TIL ALLE DIAMBARS VENNER, DA VI NÅ HAR SOM MÅL Å FINANSIERE TO SKOLEPLASSER HVERT ÅR (DA TRENGER VI !100 000 CREDITS I ÅRET)!

TUSEN TAKK FOR DIN STØTTE!
 

Det er vel ikke noe tvil - Managerleague er et spill som først og fremst appellerer til de som er interessert i fotball, og vi leter jo hele tiden etter de stedene vi finner flest av dem. Det er med stolthet jeg nå kan fortelle at vi har innledet samarbeid med halvparten av klubbene i Tippeligaen. Jeg skal ikke gå i detaljer på avtalene, men i korte trekk så skal klubbene profilere Managerleague på sine nettsider, og vi skal profilere dem på våre i Managerleague - de synes ikke ennå, men som alle vet, så er det noe på gang som gjør at utseende på Managerleague vil endres "radikalt" i relativt nær fremtid!

Alle klubbene i Tippeligaen ble forespurt om samarbeid. vi hadde på forhånd satt en intern begrensning på 8 klubber. Dermed  var det de 8 første som takket ja samarbeid som fikk plassene!

De aller fleste av disse har allerede begynt å profilere Managerleague og noen har også lagt ut redaksjonelt innhold! De klubbene som har innledet samarbeid er:

Du må gjerne klikke deg inn for å se hvordan det ser ut! Her på MLHQ synes vi i hvert fall at det ser vedlig bra ut!

Vi vil selvfølgelig komme med mer informasjon om samarbeidet underveis, og kanskje kan vi også by på en hyggelig overraskelse eller to........

Its a long time since my last post here. I have been working a lot running two projects at the same time. One of them is working with an upcoming Norwegain race driver named Stian Sørlie and the other project is obviously Managerleague, and I am happy to say - Both are going well. As always, Spinner is in charge of the game and community, and I am responsible for business development and making Managerleague visible in the right market places.

I stated earlier in my blog, that for every new partner, I would make a new blog entry . I have not kept that promise, and I am sorry for that. Our last partner is now a proud sponsor in the game with out me blogging about it in advance. Starting 2008 soon,  we have come to a point where we have to change our focus in regards to partners - We will not  sack our partners in any means, but we will change the way we cooperate. We need more income, and I will tell you why...

We have during 2008 nearly doubled the number of managers playing Managerleague, and we have nearly tripled the traffic. This is a fantastic growth and we are very happy for you playing ML and for helping us to grow further. But, this growth has led to new needs for hardware, line capacity and labour. We will within few months hire another technician to help us in developing ML further. So, the cost of running ML has increased a lot.

So how are we gonna make this happen? First of all, we will continue to grow and hopefully increase our revenue through this growth. We will not make ML more expensive to play. Growth in gaming revenue shall be from new players, and hopefully a little from non-paying existing players that converts. In addition, we have opened up for selling our sponsor slots and advertising on our front page. We have signed an agreement with a company that is in charge for selling this, as we do not have the time, network nor the skills to do so.

Furthermore we will work actively towards foundations and available grants in order to further hire skilled people do develop our market place and fantastic and beloved game. Hopefully we will find these oppurtunities, and be fortunate and lucky enough to get those extra funds.

I will also use this blog to ask for your help (again). Not only by referring your friends, releatives, neighbours and collegues to join and play Managerleague (keep on doing this too) but also to put down your own Managerleague Referral link (mine is: http://www.managerleague.com/index.pl?ref=2460) in your blogs, in forums, in your Facebook profile and so on. The more links we have out on different web-sites, the more this will help us grow through increased page rank on Alexis and Google, making us much more visible on search engines around the world!  This is the best Christmas present you all can give Spinner and me, and we have both put this wish on the top of our Wish List. (I will buy something to Spinner in addition with regards from the whole community).

We are grateful for all your help so far, and also very happy for you being there making Managerleague the best Online Football Manager Game in the world! Take care all of you!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Chairman

On April 9th, the Norwegian top division started their Football Season. The biggest phone company in Norway, Telenor, launched their new football site (http://fotball.telenor.no). We, at ML headquarter, are proud to announce that we are a part if the content on this site. 
Furthermore, we have signed a partnership contract in regards to promotion of Managerleague both on WEB 
and WAP in exchange of promoting Telenors Footballsite and services. This is a very big oppurtunity for ML 
as Telenors product range and network is huge. We will do our very best to satisfy them, and hope that this 
partnership is one step further in our drean of making Managerleague the biggest online football manager game
on the internet!

Lets all play football!