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Weekly breaks football scandal despite FA’s silencing bid

A scandal about sectarianism in football was broken by a weekly newspaper – despite attempts by the sport’s governing body to silence the story.

The Rotherham Advertiser revealed Rotherham United player Kirk Broadfoot had received a ten-game FA ban after an incident in which he was said to have aimed sectarian comments at Wigan Athletic player James McClean during a match in March.

United supporters were asking why Broadfoot wasn’t featuring in pre-season games and reporter Tom Sharpe secured information that is was because of the incident.

The Advertiser approached the club, which didn’t want to comment, and also the Football Association, which said it couldn’t comment due to a strict confidentiality agreement.

Rotherham sectarian

Advertiser editor Andrew Mosley said: “We tried to push them, even bringing up the point that not revealing the information when they run a prominent Kick it Out anti-racism campaign doesn’t look good.

“We didn’t think we had quite enough information to go with it, then on Wednesday night Tom and myself both reached the conclusion that we had and we made the decision to run it.”

Scotsman Broadfoot is a Protestant, while Derry-born McClean is a Catholic who has previously declared his supported for Irish Republican causes.

The headline of the story, pictured above on Friday’s front page, was tweeted from the Advertiser’s account at 5pm on Thursday, receiving more than 6,000 retweets.

An online version of the story brought it to the attention of the national media, and on Friday morning the FA corroborated the story on the grounds that it was now in the public domain.

Andrew added: “Fans’ forums went mad – especially in Scotland – and it provoked plenty of debate, particularly with it being the longest-ever ban for a verbal offence. Twitter debates went on throughout Friday.

“I think it proved that good old-fashioned journalism can win out and you can still have a genuine exclusive, even if the nationals can nick it hours later without any acknowledgement.

“It also proves that it’s worth taking a risk when certain organisation are trying to prevent you from carrying a story.”

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  • July 27, 2015 at 4:13 pm
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    Since when has someone saying they can’t comment been a ‘silencing bid’? A court injunction is a silencing bid, this is just the FA being stupid.

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