YOU could be forgiven for thinking that this is the time of year that everyone involved with football takes a well earned rest, especially as our players are more likely to be found on beaches instead of Austria and Switzerland - but with just under 50 days until the start of the Blue Square season, the team from consultants Sports 360 are working up and down the country on behalf of league sponsors Blue Square.

They are travelling through county after county in the specially branded Blue Square van - making sure things are in place at all of the grounds in the three Blue Square divisions.

There are advertising and welcome boards to remove from teams as fortunate as Aldershot and Exeter who have graced the Blue Square Premier to find a place in the football league, and the equally fortunate sides who will get their first and hopefully happy taste of non-league action next year at Mansfield and Wrexham.

There are also a number of promoted and relegated teams that are switching divisions within the league and need new welcome boards.

Lewes and Eastbourne Borough will be welcoming visitors to Blue Square Premier football rather than Blue Square South football to name just two.

The van will take two weeks to complete a journey taking in 25 stadiums along the way and travelling over 10,000 miles - the team consists of Jason Whalley, Glenn Bowman and Anthony Parkinson.

Anthony is also a linesman in the Blue Square North division, so this will be a busman's holiday with a difference!

Any fans that see them on route can stop them (providing it's safe!) to claim some Blue Square merchandise.

Starting on Monday 23rd June - their route is as follows - Halifax, Farsley, Droylsden, Leigh, Barrow, Stafford, Worcester, Bath, Exeter, Eastbourne, Lewes, Basingstoke, Aldershot, Chelmsford, Wimbledon, Stevenage, Cambridge, Kings Lynn, Kettering, Boston, Mansfield, Nuneaton, Wrexham and Fleetwood.

Martin James head of Sports 360 quipped: "By the time the boys get back to Fleetwood at least they won't have far to get back to our offices near Preston for a well-earned rest, before the real action starts on August 9th."

bluesqfootball.com