A regional editor has invited readers to have their say on whether his new football writer should be a fan of the local club.

Keith Perch, acting editor of the Leicester Mercury, recently advertised on HoldtheFrontPage for a football writer to replace Bill Anderson who has retired after 34 years in the role.

He received 138 responses on the back of our advert, and now has the hard task of whittling them down to a manageable shortlist.

But Keith said he has yet to decide if one of the selection criteria should be whether or not a particular candidate is a Leicester City fan.

Writing on his blog, he revealed a friend had posed the question to him during a recent lunch.

Keith admitted it wasn’t something he’d thought about, but then went on to invite readers to give their views.

Responses so far have included one which said: “Yes, if the Mercury is to have a future.”

However another poster said that while it would be nice to have a City fan, it didn’t matter so long as the writer was “realistic, objective and interested in football generally.”

What do you think? Should football writers’ jobs always go to fans of the local side – especially in one-club cities – or do writers who are more dispassionate about the game generally do a better job?

Add your comments below or email [email protected].

Comments

Roy Challis (15/06/2009 10:00:57)
I used to work as a sub on a regional daily in a one-club town where the two reporters who covered the club were both fans, and the coverage was – and still is – embarassing fanboy drivel, to the point that they’d ignore harder-hitting stories to fill the back page with vacuous ‘we’re ready for the challenge of playing xxxx’ stories.

Tony Durkin (15/06/2009 10:21:37)
I think whether or not the main footballer writer of a local paper is a fan of the club or not is incidental. First and foremost, they need to be professional, dedicated and capable of developing good contacts. They also need to be dispassionate on occasions, which might not suit a ‘fan’. I am a Blackburn Rovers fan (born and bred locally) who spent a couple of years covering deadly rivals Burnley for the local evening paper but nobody knew it because I always set out to do my job professionally. I then went on to cover Blackpool for eight years but again my personal leanings never came up — I just got on with the job.

Mike (15/06/2009 12:43:24)
I agree with the two posts. I covered my own team once and it never felt right – I found it easier to report on the city’s other team.
The Leicester job should go to best candidate… there are plenty of fan blogs and forums out there.

Darren Plant (15/06/2009 12:53:02)
I agree with Tony. As long as the writer is professional and dedicated, it shouldn’t matter who they support.
If newspaper’s only employed football writer’s who support the club they cover on their back pages, then how are the journalist’s who have taken sport journalism degree’s meant to break into the industry? It would effectively mean that you need a degree or experience in certain football clubs, rather than being employed on the quality of your journalistic skills.
With the credit crunch already having a lasting impression in the media industry and organisations favouring experience over qualifications, then it would be an even bleaker outlook for young journalists if newspapers took this route, and would raise the question of the importance of journalism degrees.

FAST WOMAN (15/06/2009 13:42:42)
Quote: ‘If newspaper’s only employed football writer’s who support the club they cover on their back pages, then how are the journalist’s who have taken sport journalism degree’s meant to break into the industry?’
Learning how the apostrophe works might help.

The magnifying glass (15/06/2009 13:58:27)
Surely the equal rights lobbyists would have something to say about this. What a stupid idea – it breaks just about every rule in the discrimination book.

Old Hack and Proud (15/06/2009 14:47:41)
Oh well! Better quit my current sports job then and see if I can find somewhere to cover Leyton Orient..!
Better tell our political writer as well that he will have to support the local Tory….

Digger Barnes (15/06/2009 14:51:39)
I remember one ‘fan’ who reported on his local team for a regional paper turning up for every game wearing a jacket with the club badge on.
This was as recent as five years ago and was in the Premier League.
He later went on to join their press office.
So much for impartiality.

FAST WOMAN (15/06/2009 14:57:17)
My apologies for the snippy post above. I really should keep up with the news.
Just had a call to say the apostrophe has taken voluntary redundancy and is now in the back bar of a dodgy pub with the rest of the unwanted subs.
At its last performance and development review meeting the apostrophe was marked as ‘below requirement’ for ‘not engaging’ with txtspk, Twitter, citizen journalism and digital forums.
There was also the little matter of a pending disciplinary hearing after the apostrophe mistook SMS for S&M, got its ems rule out, and whacked the office camcorder.
So, when invited to ‘apply’ for a post in a centralised production hub 30 miles away, there was only one choice.
By the way, The Magnifying Glass, it is quite possible to employ a club fan without breaking any rules.
There isn’t a problem if it’s considered an essential or desirable element of the person specification for the role.
My own view is that it runs a real risk of the journalist getting too close to club management and subject to pressure to ‘blind eye’ issues that should be reported.

ex-footy writer (16/06/2009 14:57:44)
It’s a difficult one. I got a job as a full-time football writer covering a club that i despised while growing up. I made no secret of my own loyalty, which didnt go down too well with the website fan boys who acted like unprofessional buffoons in the press box cheering every goal. However, after working at any club for a while you get friendly with the players and want them to do well. You get involved in the struggle and become part of it, while still maintaining distance. I later applied for the football writer’s job at my home club but failed the final interview when I told the editor (who knew nothing about football) that I wouldn’t try to entice fans into the ground because it would be an insult to their intelligence as we had just suffered two successive relegations. If the Mercury can find a fan who is realistic then it could work, otherwise you just end up with club PR and another annoying cheerleader.

Mark (25/06/2009 14:35:17)
As one of the 137 who will not be getting the job, this dilemma is a tricky one. As a former regional sports editor, I think it helps if the reporter has some feel for the club as it helps with background knowledge of past managers, players and teams, but they must keep their impartiality and be able to report objectively when things are good and bad at the club. Toeing the club line all the time is not a good thing and as long as they are prepared to criticise where necessary, being a fan of the club is not really an issue. all the best to the lucky individual who gets the job.

One-time football journalist (15/07/2009 11:33:39)
Being a fan is irrelevant, it’s having the journalistic skills to write an entertaining and informative match report and the ability to dig up stories. Sadly neither of these sit well with clubs who want to control the news. I know from bitter experience covering a lower league one town club. Exclusives were a quick hit – leading to various bans and ultimate silence from a stroppy manager – no longer in football management. I have also covered the busy Midlands patch and while supporting a
team, it made no odds who I was sent to cover. The report was as I saw it.
However to give the job to just a ‘fan’ who thinks he/she can write is the worst possible decision and shows just why newspaper sports journalism is on the wane.

Keith Farnsworth (28/07/2009 16:34:58)
You have to give the job to the candidate who has the best all-round qualifications. Having said that, I always felt that local knowledge counts for a lot when you are on a local paper –I mean, if you are a good journalist but in addition you have a knowledge of the area, the club, its history, etc, you can often see things that a stranger or someone from the outside doesn’t see. You can do a better job.
As for being a fan, as a lad I supported one Sheffield club, but when I joined the Sheffield (Morning) Telegraph sports desk, I enjoyed covering both city clubs –I liked them both to do well, but I wrote as honestly as I could –and in the long run it brought respect. I think readers (and the clubs) appreciated my sense of history and my knowledge of teams and players from the recent and distant past. Of course they didn’t always think I was fair or agree with my judgement.
Mind you, United always claimed I was a Wednesdaite, and Wednesday always insisted I was a Blade!
But I loved it –and I think my generation of football reporters enjoyed the sort of working relationships with clubs that is harder today. Today too many clubs want to control local reporters, but, then too many reporters who are just fans are often not really very good reporters and lack professionalism!
I shall never forget the day I was in the Wembley Press box for the Liverpool-Newcastle FA Cup final, and in the seat in front of me there was a Newcastle “reporter” complete with black-and-white scarf. He only lacked a rattle!
I recall, too, covering a Fulham game at Carlisle some years ago, and the Fulham Press contingent stood and cheered when Fulham scored a goal. Oh dear!