Donuts which lost the new gTLD .Basketball yesterday, won the rights to .Football today.
The only other applicant for .Football was Famous Four Media, which was also a losing applicant for .Basketball.
.Football was scheduled to go to ICANN’s Last Resort Auction later this month
According to its application Donuts:
“.Football is a generic term and its second level names will be attractive to a variety of Internet users.
.FOOTBALL will be attractive to the millions of enthusiasts worldwide who play, enjoy or are involved otherwise with a sport involving kicking or handling a ball to score a goal.
There are many variations of the game all over the world—American football, Cambridge rules, Australian rules, Canadian, rugby, flag, and touch football, etc. (Football is also an alternative reference to the game of soccer in many countries.)
These sports are played at every conceivable level, including professional, college, club, recreational, instructive, men, women, children, elder—all involving players, officials, organizations, suppliers, equipment manufacturers, arena operators, promoters, fans, and others who make the activity so widely available and appealing.
We would operate the .FOOTBALL TLD in the best interests of the full spectrum of the game’s enthusiasts and fans and in a secure and legitimate manner.”
There are new gTLD’s either launched or to be launched for .Futbol, .Rugby, and .Soccer as well.
There are no details of how the contension was resolve or the amount paid by Donuts to Famous Four for withdrawing their application.