Rick Waghorn, the former Norwich Evening News sports journalist who set up a network of local football websites a after being taking redundancy seeking funding to expand his venture to the United States, Journalism.co.uk reports.

Waghorn’s website Myfootballwriter.com is through two the second round of the Knight News Challenge.

If successful in the competition, Waghorn’s site could receive $2 million (£1m) in funding from the Knight Foundation project which supports innovation in online community journalism projects.