The football club at the centre of a row after it banned press photographers has sought to defend its continuing refusal to allow entry to snappers from a regional daily.
Southampton Football Club refused to accredit any press photographers at the start of the season for home games and is still not allowing those from the Southern Daily Echo to attend – despite lifting the ban for other media.
Earlier this week, editor Ian Murray said he was disappointed his photographers remain barred from St Mary’s Stadium and said the club had offered no explanation.
Now the club has explained the reasons for its ban, saying it believes the Echo has breached its Football League accreditation licence – a claim denied by the paper.
Club spokesman Jordan Sibley said photographers from the regional daily were allowed access for the home game against Tranmere in October but had not been accepted since.
He told HTFP: “After the Tranmere match on 9th October we were informed by DataCo – the company who manage the Football League’s accreditation process – that they were publishing photos obtained at our matches on their website.
“These images had no protection surrounding them, meaning individuals, including non-accredited organisations, were able to download the images for their own use.
“This, we were informed, is a breach of their licence, hence their applications have ceased to be accepted in recent weeks.”
But Ian said: “Our understanding is that we are not in breach of the DataCo rulings or they would ban us from all matches.”
He said there had been five home games since the ban was lifted for other newspapers and agencies and the Echo had only been allowed in for the Tranmere one – with it still not being told the reasons for the ban.
Ian added the paper would now contact DataCo to seek clarification.
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Why doesn’t this story surprise me? Not so long ago Southampton were a Premier League side, now they are treading water in League One and will do well this season to reach the play-offs. I would have thought they could do with all the local media exposure they could get.
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Won’t be long before the fans can’t take cameras into the game. Problem is football is no longer a sport but is an industry. It is moving so far away from the ordinary fan it will cut its own throat in time. And dumb disputes like this don’t help.
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Oh come on lensgirl. Its not just the clubs. The national media coverage of football is mostly fiction. Papers recycle unfounded rumours, radio reads out the papers without checking the facts. Without the word linked a lot of radio and paper reporters would be out of work. What a joke it all is. No wonder clubs get, shall we say, shirty.
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spot on mediaspy. But it’s a bit more complicated I suspect. Agents, spies (sorry contacts) within clubs taking money from hacks, players using the media through a pal on a paper to get a move or a fat new contracts all have a hand in the till. Just watch the footy, hope it’s a good game, and give the before-after media a miss. It won’t reduce your enjoyment one bit. Cant understand why a local rag is being picked on though.
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mostly fiction is a bit strong mediaspy, though a lot of national stories are pure rubbish and would shame a weekly paper. There are always mugs who will read and believe this tosh, and the hacks take their money and wonder how they get away with it every day. Never understood why sports reporters on nationals don’t have to abide by same rules of libel, right of reply, attribution and balance that news reporters have to. Do they have some immunity?
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lensgirl: Fans can’t take cameras into matches. As far as I’m aware – and it says this on my tickets anyway – photographs are copyright of The Football League and unauthorised photography is prohibited.
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Lighten up everybody. Everyone knows sports coverage in tabloids is a joke- even the people who write it all. They may be cynical but they are not stupid. It’s just something to laugh over when you are having a few beers. But I do agree when it gets a bit personal and inaccurate someone on the sports desk needs booting into touch.
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PAUL. Last time I was at Old Trafford I saw hundreds of them snapping away. Maybe they shouldn’t, but they do.
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I’ve seen stewards at some grounds confiscate cameras as fans walk into the ground
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Taking cameras away is pathetic and mean. For some fans it is a huge event they want a record of. The clubs rip them off enough with admission charges that some working class fans just can’t scrape together. And then they ban cameras. Will fotball eat itself?
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Stan The Man – Southampton have been in the League 1 play-off places since November 2, so by your rationale are already doing well. Keep up!
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The whole accreditation system for getting into games to take pics is a joke anyway. About time a better system was developed so that honest hard working snappers can take pictures at footy, rather than the current bloated complicated system.
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