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20 January, 2000 - (SEASON ONE/S1) History of Soccer
All Stars There's a big debate over the history of the SAS league. Many people seem to think it started in November 1998. This seemed the most accurate as ScreamKing, the founder of Soccer All Stars had originally said that the site started in November 1998. However this is in fact incorrect. ScreamKing actually started off the SAS as the SSA which stood for Scream Soccer Association. The SSA began during March 1998 and lasted three months before closing down in June the same year. ScreamKing then revamped the SSA and also changed it's name to Soccer All Stars (SAS) and re-opened during November 1998. ScreamKing though didn't want to link SAS with the revamp as he felt the SSA was very poor and made the SAS look unprofessional. During November 1998 and January 1999 the Soccer All Stars league was booming as fans across the globe enjoyed playing the game regularly. The site enjoyed 6,000 hits in that time before ScreamKing stepped down. He basically was a victim of his own success at the time. During the time of November 1998 and January 1999, ScreamKing appointed several co-workers of the site. These included William Geddes (Raw), Alex Jans (Maverick), Orjan Knutsen (BrannBergen), Simon Godfrey (Simmo) and Neil Morris (Neil). These appointments helped in the massive success of SAS. However in January 1999, ScreamKing passed over the site to a new team which was Guernsey based. Out went ScreamKing, Simon Godfrey, Neil Morris and William Geddes. In came Matt Gaudion (New Chairman), Otto Marais and Matt Seeds. Orjan Knutsen and Alex Jans stayed on with the new team. In February 1999, the new team started off very impressively and the site enjoyed even greater success for a short period. This though soon came to an abrupt end when several board members and managers resigned over ScreamKing's resignation and the poor updating of the site. The new SAS Internet Management team promised a site revamp, a domain name and more divisions to play in. However the fans waited and waited but nothing ever came. It's rumoured that there was a bitter row between ScreamKing, the new SAS Internet Management Team and Dream Teams (another fantasy football site). SAS was then taken back by ScreamKing who closed the site down during February 1999. This left fans in confusion as ScreamKing had reclaimed his site. However new SAS Internet Management team though promised the site would continue with a new domain. Several other features were also promised, such as flash graphics and easy drag and drop pages, but they along with the revamp and new domain, never came. The original SAS site stayed inactive from February 1999 until September 1999 where a small image appeared announcing that SAS would be returning. The graphical image was very pretty and left fans confused. Was it ScreamKing returning or had the new SAS Internet Management Team finally got the site up? It was actually in fact ScreamKing. Many people wondered what exactly was going on as almost an identical image and site style appeared all over Euro League (Now a SAS affiliate). ScreamKing, who had planned to re-open the SAS decided against it and opted to help out Euro League as Acting Vice Chairman. Euro League, which was already booming at the time enjoyed further success and are now the number one site in Fantasy Football. (http://welcome.to/euroleague) Soccer All Stars though stayed inactive like that until this day, October 4th 1999 when SAS put up a message that they we're back! Some fans were given 'sneak' previews of the site while others were BETA testers for it. The new SAS underwent a revamp, got it's own domain and changed it's title slightly to SAS Internet Management although it's still mainly referred to as SAS, even by the Executive Board! The new site is incredibly impressive compared to when it first emerged. The amount of content triples what the previous site had and it now offers support for other sites. The new SAS site also then changed it's political running of the league. No longer was their a single Chairman orchestrating the site. Previously ScreamKing and Matt Gaudion we're Chairman. However SAS introduced a new 'Executive Board' which saw ScreamKing returning with Alex Jans, Simon Godfrey and Orjan Knutsen. The Executive Board were a committee which ran the league. This means that a voting system was installed on each and every topic. This in turn would ensure the fairest, best and easiest solutions to all topics, ideas and situations found within the league. However during the course of the opening season SAS encountered several problems as many Board members quit due to the enormous workload and pressure with the top jobs. Alex Jans was the first to go and Orjan Knutsen soon followed. During this time Simon Godfrey and ScreamKing maintained control and Ant Coombes soon joined the Board but left due to the workload until SAS finally appointed Stuart Gibson to the team. The three of them ran the show extremely well until both Stuart Gibson and Simon Godfrey stepped down only 48 hours apart from each other. This left ScreamKing alone again and he once again vowed to see the season through be himself. The departure of Simon Godfrey was the most surprising one as the 18 month partnership between ScreamKing and Godfrey finally came to an end. They'd done it all together and basically Godfrey needed a change, a new challenge and something fresh to keep him interested. His name will always live in the memory of SAS as will Stuart Gibson, whose hard work will also never be forgotten. ScreamKing though, insists that the beat goes on... This
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