Sussex’s footgolf five get World Cup bid backing

The team includes former Crawley Town footballer and British champion kickboxer Clinton Moore.

The other members are Nick Iron, Phil Butcher, Ryann Smith and Paul Oliver, the UK Champion in the fastest growing sport in the country.

The exciting new sport of FootGolf – golf played by kicking a football – has taken the nation by storm since 2012 and there are now 30,000 leisure players per week in the UK.

Three of the Sussex team became European Champions earlier this year and all five of the county team will be in the 16-strong UK squad coming from Crawley.

Lloyd Gordon, CEO of Focus ERP, noticed on social media that old friends, with whom he grew up playing football, were looking for sponsorship, having risen to the top of the UK rankings.

He felt his old friends’ successes, which had propelled them to the international stage, reflected the values of his company, which is an international recruitment supplier of permanent and contract staff in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) and Cloud Solutions.

He said: “We’re a Sussex based company which is a global international player in the areas in which we specialise but we want to keep a local flavour.

“We want to support local organisations, charities and causes. We already sponsor Furngate FC Under-15s and this is the second sponsorship we will have. Focus ERP is all about giving people opportunities that they may not have the option of obtaining elsewhere which was very similar to my own situation before Focus.

“Our service to our candidates and clients reflects what the British FootGolf team are about which is Integrity, Humility, Motivation and Excellence. I see that in these lads hence the affiliation. Focus ERP is designed to be the best in our market so let’s hope the British team reflect that in Argentina!

“I used to play football from the age of 11-21 and I saw on social media that Clinton and the other Sussex players were looking for sponsorship as part of the UK team.

“It sounded like a fantastic opportunity to support something new and exciting, especially as the UK team are favourites to win.”

Paul Oliver, the FootGolf Association regional development manager, said: “It’s been an incredible year for FootGolf in Sussex. At a national level I was crowned UK champion, Nick finished third, Clint fourth, Phil Butcher 11th and Ryann Smith 12th, which meant we all qualified for the World Cup.

“Together we became national county champions and, further afield, Nick, Clint and I are European champions and ranked in the top ten in Europe individually.

“The sport is growing quickly, but it isn’t yet at the stage where prize money allows us the comfort of travelling all over the world.

“So we’re very grateful to Focus ERP for funding the Sussex Team as they form part of the team aiming to bring home the World Cup in a tournament that will be broadcast across 80 countries.

“The sport has really taken off and it is the support of companies like Focus ERP which will ensure that continues to be the case.”

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