Browse Sections

• Education
• Special reports

Fans net football score

20/ 3/2002

MANCHESTER United fanaticism could get teenagers into the 'net' if a new computer scheme goes according to plan.

Members of the Salford Unemployment and Resource Centre in Eccles have teamed up with the football giants in a novel bid to improve literacy and computer skills in Salford.

Manchester Reading United, launched by the centre's chief Alec McFadden, aims to get youngsters interested in using the internet by making them read about the team on the World Wide Web.

Sunderland fan Alec has put his own interests aside to try and push the scheme forward, adding that the prospect of finding out more about his Wearside heroes was the only thing that got him interested in reading as a teenager.

Manchester Reading United, which has won the support of Old Trafford bosses, is being funded by more than £6,000 from the Millennium Commission. This is paying for computers, child minders, and a specialist mentor who will guide teenagers through the internet.

Youngsters aged from 10 to 14 will be able to come to the centre three nights a week along with their parents and use computers in a scheme which is thought to be the first of its kind in the country.

Anyone interested should telephone 0161 789 2999.