WANDERERS’ efforts to spread the club’s word world-wide are starting to bear fruit.

The International Football Programme has reported significant increase in the number of foreign-based teams looking for link-ups in the past 12 months, resulting in a brand new revenue stream for the club.

Business has been booming at the Whites Hotel as the calibre of sporting organisations continues to improve.

Prestige guests at the Macron in the past 12 months include the German Under-21 team and Saudi Arabian giants Al-Ittihad.

Wanderers have exported their coaching talents abroad and, in turn, brought international clubs back to the Macron to sample what life around a professional EFL side is really like.

The exchanges have also led to personal invitations for some of the best players to come back and participate in the Elite Pro Club Experience – a nine-day elite course designed replicate the experience of training at a professional club in a multi-cultural environment.

This year’s EPCE will be held from October 21-29 and will feature players from Australia, Canada, Italy, Qatar, Poland and the United States but plans are afoot to diversify and tap into the footballing markets of India, China, Kenya, West Africa and South Africa in the next couple of years ahead.

Although organisers are careful not to bill it as a trial, they feel it is a way of monitoring young international talents which may have otherwise slipped through the net.

“If in the course of the EPCE we see a player we like, it may be we can take a look at them alongside the academy players, or keep tabs on them after they go back to their club. It’s a cost-effective way of scouting,” says IFP coach Danny Clarke.

The IFP is now working closely with academy chief Jimmy Phillips and has been able to draw on some of the club’s top coaches, including Julian Darby, for their camps abroad.

“To have someone of Jimmy’s calibre is great for us,” said Clarke. “He has spoken to our clients and given them a really honest insight into his career and what it is like working at a professional club like Bolton Wanderers. It’s a completely unique environment.”

The IFP has also been given some ringing endorsements from former Wanderers like Stuart Holden – who celebrated the fact Bolton was out in force at the recent APC Premier Cup in Washington DC.

Ivan Klasnic is also due in town in October with a team comprised mainly of German-born Croatians.

The next step, however, will be a long trip to Queensland next week with Clarke and his team heading out to the Sunshine Coast to deliver coaching sessions, which could be expanded to Melbourne in the future.