A regional daily newspaper has found a new way around the ban on photographers imposed by Southampton Football Club – by using Subbuteo table football figures to recreate a match.

The Swindon Advertiser came up with the unusual move as a way of covering the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match between Swindon Town and Southampton last night.

Southampton brought in the controversial ban on press photographers at its ground last month, saying newspapers should instead pay for images taken by its own professionals.

But regional papers have refused to buy the club’s photos and many have found alternative ways of covering the game, including using pictures from the 80s and cartoons.

Anthony Marshall, chief sports writer at the Swindon Advertiser, came up with the idea of using Subbuteo to recreate key moments from the game.

He spent time yesterday painting the plastic football players so they were in the correct colours and setting up a pitch in the office.

While covering the game last night, he recorded scenes from the match in his notebook, which were then recreated on the Subbuteo pitch and photos taken.

A plastic figure representing Swindon Town player Vincent Pericard, in the team’s black cup kit, scores the first goal against Southampton. The final score was 3-0 to Swindon.

Anthony said: “Everyone is trying to get around it. We just have to be as imaginative as possible. It is a bit quirky and hopefully the readers will see the funny side of it.”

And an editorial yesterday criticised the ban, saying the paper had found its own way to cover the game rather than ‘lining the pockets of a clearly greedy club’.

It said: “Football clubs need newspapers as much as newspapers need football clubs. The partnership is mutually beneficial.

“Clubs essentially receive free advertising, with their team and sponsors splashed across the back pages every single day, while the readership of papers is boosted by those who want to find out what is going on at their club.

“But Southampton seem to think they are above that and are greedily attempting to create a monopoly on images. And – regardless of their history – when a club in the third tier of English football starts talking about image rights then you know something is drastically wrong with the game we all know and love.”

Comments

Simon James (01/09/2010 11:34:46)
Typical Newsquest, great story, now try and find the Subbuteo pictures on the Swindon Advertiser website…

Hack (01/09/2010 11:55:18)
Simon – I’ve looked and they are clearly there.

Hengist Pod (01/09/2010 12:13:34)
Football Clubs that practise this sort of nonsense really do deserve to go to the wall

Jack Wood (01/09/2010 13:05:22)
This is brilliant – it’s good to see that newspapers are pushing the boundaries again, it’s been too long since such imagination has existed in the industry. The scope for more papers is endless – I hope to see Shakespeare actors maybe re enacting a game in full costume, perhaps some kind of farmyard animals.
Sooner or later Southampton will surely have to give in and allow the press back in, otherwise they can just continue looking ridiculous

Worcester Subbuteo (01/09/2010 13:20:54)
A fantastic result for Subbuteo! Anyone that fancies a game of Subbuteo check out www.wrp7.com

Simon James (01/09/2010 14:23:41)
Hack- You are so right. They posted a story at 11:38am. Four mins after I commented!!
As I said, typical Newsquest-they pretty much have a viral on their hands and they can’t be arsed to have it, or even a link on the front page. Sheesh.
Mind you, hold on, give it 4 minutes!

DesE Gershon (01/09/2010 15:51:51)
What brilliance by Anthony Marshall, chief sports writer at the Swindon Advertiser,to put these arrogant clubs in their place. Rub the salt in more and have an exhibition at the local library/art gallery and get some well known art critic to give his/her comments on this creative work of art.

Biter (01/09/2010 16:21:26)
You’d think he would have bothered to paint the figures in the crowd as well really.

Steve Dyson (01/09/2010 17:45:46)
Great idea… and why put it on the web before 11.38am? I think Swindon was right (intentionally or not) to let the paper breathe with this superb p***-take first, then put in online after. Case-by-case treatment, of course, and sometimes the web needs stories/images at the same time or sooner than print. But this was a print-impact exclusive that people would have loved and may have bought the paper for once they heard about it. Why give that away for nowt on the web?

Peter Garwood (02/09/2010 08:19:04)
Why dont they link up with a helicopter crew and take some shots from above the pitch!!

Kevin Duffy (02/09/2010 10:18:18)
I hope they had some plastic WAGS cheering from the touchline as well. Other options include using a simple Flip-type camera or similar and stop-motion to produce moving footage of the goals!

Steve Bott (08/09/2010 17:28:40)
Quirky, but I think you might be better sticking with stock library pics until the South coast club come to their senses!