Directors at Liverpool’s Waterloo came up with www.mywaterloorugby.com in a bid to keep the historic club alive in what is becoming an increasingly challenging Rugby Union funding landscape.

Waterloo chairman Simon Robb said: “Basically Waterloo is in the last-chance saloon. 

“But we don’t want sympathy. 

“We want Rugby Fan’s support, participation and of course a little bit of their cash.

“In return, the fans get to run the club and the chance to win some big prizes.  It’s a great deal for everyone

“Waterloo gets the money it so desperately needs and it connects with its fans and the wider rugby community like no club has ever done before. 

“At the same time thousands of ordinary people get to run a very real rugby club.”

Every week the on-line managers will be asked to make one key commercial decision and will also be given the opportunity to pick the team. All the selections will be aggregated and the players with most votes in each position will be the 15 presented to the director of rugby. He will be allowed up to four changes, to ensure for example there is a kicker on the field, the centres are a balanced pair and so on.

Online managers will earn points for every one of their selections that takes the field and they will earn (or lose) further points for tries, assists, tackles made/missed, red and yellow cards etc.  Points totals will be accumulated in a managers league table.

The best performing manager each month will be invited to be guests at Waterloo for a forthcoming home game. Their travel expenses will be covered by www.mywaterloorugby.com whether they are coming from Crosby or Cape Town.

www.mywaterloo.com intend to offer significant prizes for top performing managers each month and over the course of the season. As with all other decisions, members will vote on what prizes   should be awarded and their value.

www.mywaterloo.com is currently in the final stages of obtaining appropriate legal approval to be able to award an ultimate cash award of up to £10,000.

For just a £25 subscription Rugby fans can become the team’s managers. Every penny of every subscription after expenses goes straight to funding the future success of Waterloo FC. www.mywaterloorugby.com is a not-for-profit organisation. The website supports Wooden Spoon with a set amount of the subscription revenue being donated to the charity.

Gill Burns, MBE, founded women’s rugby at Waterloo twenty years ago this year and was team captain for many years and recently Club President.

She was also captain of England and a World Cup winner and a Wooden Spoon Lioness. She is the current President of the WRFU and member of the Rugby Hall of Fame.

She added: "We have a proud history of innovation at Waterloo. 

“This year we celebrate 20 years of women's rugby and now this - the world's first rugby club run by an online community of managers! 

“I am sure it's going to be a huge success and I can't wait for the fun to begin.”

Spoon wishes Waterloo Rugby best of luck with this new initiative and would like to encourage all its supporters to assist this great club while have a lot of online fun.