About El Bombín
What Is El Bombín?
El Bombín is a collection of articles and information highlighting the achievements of British football coaches working OUTSIDE Great Britain, from the early days of football until the 1960s. Many of these coaches were generally overlooked in their homeland due to their ‘radical’ ideas on how the game should be played - passing, ball possession and even training sessions with a ball were looked at unfavourably by some of the early football establishment.
There are three aims to this web site. Firstly, to document the work of those coaches who believed that the twin objectives of a successful team and playing so-called ‘beautiful football’ need not be mutally exclusive. The second aim is to provide an easy-to-find, easy-to-use, accessible resource to those looking for information regarding these forgotten coaches; and the third aim is to hopefully pay tribute to their work.
About The Name
The name El Bombín came from a book called ‘Morbo: The Story Of Spanish Football’, written by Phil Ball. ‘Bombín’ was the nickname of a manager of Athletic Bilbao in the 1920s and early 1930s named Fred Pentland, and it means ‘bowler hat’ - how can you get more British than that??
About the information on El Bombín
Providing accurate information WHEREVER POSSIBLE is integral to this site - in fact, there’s no point setting it up otherwise! In order to do this, El Bombín aims to have AT LEAST TWO SEPARATE references for any facts presented here (ideally, even more!) This does not, of course, guarantee with absolute certainty that something is true, but, with the additions and corrections by visitors to the site, the intention is to create and maintain highly accurate records.
About Content Submissions
Submissions, from simple updates and additions through to complete articles, are welcomed at El Bombín, but in maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the information on the site, we would appreciate it if contributors attempt to provide at least two separate, unconnected references to stated facts. Of course, if it turns out that you have access to information that’s NOT widely available (ie, NOT online and NOT link-able) then please give us a few brief details about how you came across it, and we can add those to your submission.
In any cases, you will always, always, ALWAYS be credited with anything that you send to El Bombín. If you’d like us to link your name to your web site, just send us the URL. If you’d like your name to link to your e-mail address, please say so - we do not do this automatically because there’s a chance that you’ll receive spam if you link to your e-mail address in this way.
When you send content, we will always treat your e-mail address with respect and it will never (and we mean NEVER!) find it’s way on to a spammers mailing list due to being sold by us. If, however as stated above, you wish to link directly to your e-mail address from your contribution, there’s not a lot we can do unfortunately...
After your submission to El Bombín has been received, it will be read, categorised and re-formatted for the site (divided into paragraphs, links configured, etc.) Please note that, unless we feel it absolutely necessary, the actual content of your submission will not be altered in any way before placing it on the site. If major alterations are required, we will send you a link to a temporary version of the page and get your approval before making it available on the site. In any case, you will receive an e-mail whenever your material is added, OR, whenever an amendment or addition creates a discrepancy with your work.
Please note that El Bombín CANNOT provide payment for submissions. Yes, there's a Google AdSense advert at the side of the page, and yes, some of the book links are affiliate links, but this is purely to pay for any increases in hosting fees due to the increased bandwidth. Saying that, how many people make much profit from web site advertising / affiliate fees anyway!?!?
By the way, if YOU wish to cite a book within a submission, please feel free to use your own affiliate links, and these will be honoured by El Bombín - they will definitely not be replaced by OUR affiliate links!
El Bombín is Produced and Created by Stuart Homfray, 2005