A South Coast daily newspaper has been banned from its local league football ground after a series of rows with the club’s management.
Bournemouth Echo reporters have been told they are no longer welcome at Bournemouth AFC’s Seward Stadium.
It follows a series of disagreements between the club and the newspaper which initially saw reporters barred from asking questions at post-match press conferences.
The Echo carried news of the ban in a front-page editorial in today’s edition, headlined ‘Banned.’
It read: “The Echo was yesterday informed, just four hours before kick-off against Brentford, that our reporters and photographers were no longer welcome at Seward Stadium.
“The communication from Cherries media executive Max Fitzgerald brought to a head weeks of needless and childish screw-tightening by the football club that had initially started with Echo reporters being banned from asking questions in Lee Bradbury’s post-match press conferences.
“Since becoming manager, Bradbury has taken it upon himself to make life increasingly difficult for our reporters.
“It truly is a crying shame that it has come to this. The Echo, though, would like to wish the players and fans, both innocent parties in this pointless spat, all the very best for the rest of the season and beyond.”
Last week Mr Bradbury phoned an Echo reporter to complain about a back page headline which read ‘Immature’.
It came after the manager described his players as “immature” during his post-match interview at Sheffield Wednesday in front of the written press.
The Echo is the second Newsquest-owned title to be hit by a ban by its local football club in recent years.
Two years ago sister title photographers from the Southern Daily Echo were subjected to a lengthy ban by Southampton FC which was eventually resolved after the Society of Editors intervened.
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Interesting to see that a lower division club has a ‘media executive’.
What does this person do (apart from tell reporters they are no longer welcome?
It is difficult to believe the media at large is interested in the doings of a team which, with respect, has never actually set the football world on fire.
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Sad fact is that it’s never been easier for tinpot football clubs to get their ‘message’ out there, what with websites, social media etc. They don’t need local newspapers as much as they used to – and they know it.
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Methinks the Footbal Club will crawl back sooner or later…Very few clubs can do without local media.Managers come and go as we know, the current manager will be do different.. wait and see
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Good on the Echo for sticking to their guns and backing their reporters.
“Banned from asking questions” !? Does every small time manager now think they’re Sir Alex Ferguson?
Strikes me he’s covering up his own failings – one win in the last eight at Bournemouth – by having a pop at the local press.
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Full credit to the Echo for sticking by their principles and best of luck being left in the cold.
These managers, chairmen and ‘media executives’ come and go but the paper, in whatever format, will outlive them all.
Considering the dreadful run Bournemouth are on at present there could be changes in the club’s hierarchy sooner rather than later, which may change matters.
The problem, though, is when the team is winning – as the Southern Daily Echo will testify.
They have now been banned by Southampton for more than a year for ridiculous reasons.
And the fans couldn’t care less….
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In more than 20 years of sports journalism, it would be easier to list the clubs which hadn’t banned my papers or staff from covering their clubs. Funnily enough, after a day or so, there has always been the quiet phone call from the football end inviting us back….
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This Northern Echo story about a similar incident at Hartlepool is worth a read… http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/features/leader/3636102.Hartlepool___s_own_goal/
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pathetic – presumably they will ban every fan who posts something critical on Facebook/twitter/online fanzines. Sadly, newspapers are now largely irrelevant to football clubs as a result of social media.
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Lee Bradbury never made much of an impression on the pitch. He went from being a £3m flop at Manchester City to becoming a very average Championship player at Portsmouth and losing 90 per cent of his transfer value in just two years. Looks like he’s trying to make the sort of impression he wishes he could have made as a player.
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I’d like to see the FA impose sanctions on clubs that behave like this.
You can’t stop criticism and banning the press because you don’t like what they say and preventing them asking difficult questions is doing a disservice to their fans and communities.
Football clubs used to be there to entertain their supporters, these days it’s all about making money and protecting their corporate image.
Trying to censor criticism is pathetic and suggests the club’s hierachy are insecure and oversensitive.
I heard their chairman swearing on Five Live the other day
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/03/bournemouth-charlton-athletic-eddie-mitchell
All the Bournemouth fans I know (both of them) are embarrassed by how the club is being run.
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It’s typical local papers forgetting where their place is in the media landscape. Yes, by all means be critical, but don’t bleat on when you get banned. That’s the nature of the beast because you are not the only source of information any more. Doesn’t matter how right or wrong you are, it can happen because your importance has lessened. Deal with it and either continue to be critical and expect to be censored, or play the same game everyone else has to by not blowing everything out of proportion. It’s only a flaming game!
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good for them for standing up to club. Some papers are little more than PR machines for their local football clubs. Ask the fans.
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