Celtic net Rangers names

Celtic have been busy in the domain name market

A host of top names from Rangers Football Club have been signed up by arch rivals Celtic.

But it is only the names of star players that now belong to the Parkhead club and not the players themselves.

Celtic have revealed that they registered the internet domain names of such stars as Stefan Klos, Billy Dodds and Rod Wallace.

This incident merely demonstrates the spirit of co-operation that exists on a number of commercial matters between the Old Firm clubs

Celtic FC

A Celtic spokesman said: "Some people, for their own personal gain, have been registering names of professional players as domain names on the internet.

"These people have no connection to the players or the players' clubs. Celtic have moved to register the majority of its own players.

"While this process was ongoing, it was mentioned by Celtic to Rangers, who agreed for Celtic to register the names of several of the Rangers players at the same time and pass over ownership to Rangers. Celtic were pleased to help.

"This incident merely demonstrates the spirit of co-operation that exists on a number of commercial matters between the Old Firm clubs."

Player sites

Rangers' commercial manager, Martin Bain, said: "Under the jointly registered trademark of ''Old Firm', Rangers and Celtic have acted together to buy up all the domain names of all our players to prevent exploitations by members of the public.

Billy Dodds: Celtic point the way on the internet

"When the players return from holiday, they will be offered the chance to run the sites themselves, or to have their respective clubs do it.''

Forrest Duncan, of internet service provider Iomart, said: "It's a hard one to work out what they (Celtic) would want to do with that.

"Unless they are going to sign Billy Dodds, which is unlikely, they can only really use it as spoiler or perhaps try to sell it back to Rangers."

Rangers said Celtic registered the names as a favour because the Parkhead club was in the habit of registering players' names.

But Mr Duncan said he was surprised there was such a level of co-operation between the clubs.

Net worth of players

"It would strike me as strange for a business to do that, but it would certainly strike me as strange for Celtic to do Rangers that very nice favour," he said.

Mr Duncan said it was unlikely that the domain names for any of the Rangers players would make a huge amount of money, adding that there was virtually no chance of the Rangers names equalling a record $7m tag on a domain in the USA.

But he said the registration of names would become increasingly important in future.

Rangers: An own goal?

"As we get into much higher broadband access to the internet so that sport over the internet becomes more of a reality then these players have to realise they are an asset and they have a value to their fans," he said.

In cyberspace, as with the real world, a good address is highly sought after and does not come cheap.

Hence cybersquatting - occupying a web address which might rightly belong to someone else - has become the latest fad.

The issue of domain name registration on the internet has become such a problem in the United States that the government there is planning to privatise the way URLs are allocated.

£100 registration fee

As more and more companies are registering for internet addresses, many are finding that their names have already been taken. And there is little they can do to get them back.

Anyone can register a domain name, as long as it has not already been taken. The cost varies, but is generally no more than £100 plus an annual rental fee, irrespective of how "good" it is.

Purchase is usually managed by an online agent which acts for a registry. The biggest registry is Network Solutions Inc which handles all URLs ending in .com, .org and .net.

In the UK, names ending in .co.uk, .org.uk and .net.uk are sold on a first-come, first served basis by the non-profit making Nominet.

Problems only arise when a latecomer disputes the original owner's right to the address.