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Football club denies ban on chief sports writer

A championship football club has denied claims from the chief sports reporter on a regional newspaper that he was refused entry to the press box of a major match.

Neil Allen, chief sports writer at Portsmouth title The News, claims that he was denied a press ticket by Southampton Football Club for its local derby game against Portsmouth on Saturday, despite two colleagues being granted passes after he had applied.

Said Neil: “I had been rejected before my colleagues had been accepted. We were later told the reason being the press box was full. On the day of the match, however, I am told there were at least 10 seats free.

“In my 15 years of journalism I have never been refused any away pass before.”

However club spokesman Jordan Sibley said The News applied for accreditation for 11 members of staff, and a large number of requests meant they had to limit organisations to a set number of reporters.

Said Jordan: “As such, when returning The News’ accreditation request I accepted two of their reporters and a photographer – in keeping with the same restrictions others had to adhere to for this fixture.”

He added that despite Neil’s claims he was not denied access prior to colleagues later receiving press passes – The News’ requests were all dealt with at the same time.

Neil watched the match, which ended in a 2-2 draw, from the stands at Southampton’s St Mary’s stadium after being given a ticket at the last minute by Portsmouth FC. He wrote about it in a light-hearted piece called ‘Pompey have last laugh after gauntlet of hate.’

 

 

8 comments

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  • April 11, 2012 at 9:00 am
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    Did they need 3 reporters to cover the game? Sounds like he was on a blag to me.

    Two reporters is more than enough.

    More shocked that 11 members of The News applied for accreditation.
    Did they want one person to interview every starting player for Pompey?

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  • April 11, 2012 at 9:25 am
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    Is this the same Southampton who have banned their local paper for a year?
    The same Southampton who tried to charge photographers to go to games and sparked a boycott by the nationals?
    Seems they have plenty of history when deal with the press.

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  • April 11, 2012 at 9:29 am
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    Seeing as Southampton have banned their own local paper for more than two years this doesn’t surprise me.

    I’m sure this episode has nothing to do with Neil Allen pointing out on Twitter some rather unprofessional remarks by Jordan Sibley a few weeks ago.

    House Rules, I assume you’ve never reported on a big football match? Trust me, it’s not as much fun as it sounds.

    What I will say, House Rules, is that as a former regional sports reporter myself, three reporters to cover a derby game like this is about right. It takes a lot of work to produce live coverage for the paper, live web updates, colour pieces, interviews with managers and players of both teams, vox pops with fans before and after and more than likely videos and what not too, these days.

    11 may seem a little excessive, but that will include photographers at the game and reporters and photographers attached to the police operation (which I imagine was huge for a game like this – not much love lost between the two clubs, is there?).

    You should see how many people the BBC send to these things!!

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  • April 11, 2012 at 10:10 am
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    His title is chief sports writer. Hardly a blag. And surely three reporters to cover the biggest game of the season isn’t excessive, particularly when you consider they have two reporters plus two photographers for every other game.

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  • April 11, 2012 at 11:55 am
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    Why on earth do The News require 11 press members at a game? It seems they were after a jolly day out to me, why do everyone think they are owed a freebie. That is why so many football clubs, including The News’ own club Portsmouth are struggling, poor management. I think Southampton were right to restrict the number of reporters… Southampton is not a charity for newspaper reporters.

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  • April 11, 2012 at 12:42 pm
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    Southampton?
    Would that be south of Hampton by any chance?

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  • April 11, 2012 at 2:29 pm
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    @FleetStreetBoozer you make good points. RE coverage with both sets of fans and the police.

    However, the reporter would not need a ticket to the press box (which is what he is upset about not getting).

    I have been with the police at premier league games and at rugby internationals and that was done via police not team press office.

    He had a ticket in the away end so could have still done his colour pieces on the fans day out.

    As someone else has said, the 11 people all wanted a free ticket. If it was so important that the chief reporter got one then surely they could have asked the club to switch one of the passes to him. Or maybe the two people who got them were more senior..

    Plus we know the BBC send too many but doesn’t really apply in this case.

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  • April 11, 2012 at 2:29 pm
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    I bet when it comes to the newsdesk fielding reporters to a half way decent news story they struggle to find one to send, let alone three or even 11!
    It doesn’t matter if it is an important match or an amateur game in the park, the event is exactly the same – 90 minutes of football, plus a chat with the manager afterwards. One reporter should be sufficient…two a luxury.

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