An Eastbourne hospice has denied it made £5,000 from an internet deal involving the Scottish Football Association (SFA).

Press reports said the SFA donated £5,000 to St Wilfred's hospice to secure the internet domain name www.hampdenpark.co.uk Hampden Park is an area of Eastbourne which shares its name with Scotland's national football stadium in Glasgow.

Suffolk internet firm Web Hound owned the name and told the SFA to make a donation to St Wilfred's before it handed over the rights.

But Stephen Gilbert, manager of the hospice, said: "I have had no contact with the SFA or Hampden Park."

Webhound was believed to have registered the name as part of its drive to gain the address of every village in Britain.

Andy Mitchell, head of media relations for the Scottish Football Association, said: "I can confirm the domain name has been transferred from Web Hound to Hampden Park.

"I have nothing to say on the other matters."

Angie Barrow, managing director of Webhound, said in a statement to the Argus: "We hope not to have caused offence to local people in Sussex or in Scotland in any way."

evolution has discovered Web Hound has registered the names of many villages and areas of towns in Sussex.

It owns domain names for Hollingbury, Moulsecoomb, Chailey, Durrington and Alfriston among others, all of which link to the firm's ANY-Town website.

Webhound has registered the names of towns and villages across the country as domain names.

Its claim on the .co.uk internet domain for Haroldswick, the United Kingdom's most northerly village, was condemned as "piracy" by the Scottish Parliament's deputy speaker, George Reid MSP.

Residents of the Scottish village of Balfron were asked to pay £500 for their .co.uk address in January, prompting demands for a review of internet licensing.

Ms Barrow said Webhound did not intend to sell further domain names.

Her site stated: "Where we have made an erroneous domain name registration, a transfer may be possible - against a substantial donation to a local charity."

www.webhound.com
www.ANY-Town.co.uk