A regional daily has been banned by its local football club after objecting to a Tweet by one of its sports journalists.
The Swindon Advertiser has been barred from using press facilities at Swindon Town football club after chief sports writer Sam Morshead tweeted that striker Nile Ranger was in the team to play Peterborough United on Saturday, ahead of the team sheets being handed in.
Swindon Town claim that after seeing Sam’s Tweet, which was sent 45 minutes before the team sheets were submitted, the Peterborough side changed their team.
This led to Swindon Town chaiman Lee Power banning the Advertiser from the press box at the County Ground and from pre and post-match interviews with players and staff.
Sam Morshead's Tweet, which led to the Swindon Advertiser being banned.
The dispute with the football club is the latest to hit the regional press, with a number facing bans over the last few months, including the Rotherham Advertiser and Trinity Mirror’s three titles in Newcastle, including the Evening Chronicle.
Sam tweeted the information about Ranger after seeing a Tweet by a fan who had photographed his shirt hanging in the dressing room during a pre-match tour of the ground.
The paper said that Ranger, who scored Swindon Town’s first goal, had himself told his 13,198 followers on Instagram that he was back in the team at 1.32pm, half an hour before the team sheets were handed in.
Sam had been told the news on Thursday by a source that Ranger was likely to feature in the game but after conversations with a club official chose not to report on it, so as not to give Peterborough an advantage.
Said Sam: “I went along with the club’s request for the good of the team. It was only when I saw the Tweet from the fan who stated he had seen Ranger’s shirt hanging in the dressing room during a stadium tour that I tweeted what was already being spread around.
“Once it was in the public domain I felt I had the right to report on it. It is what any reporter would do.”
Following the ban, Advertiser editor Gary Lawrence spent 20 minutes on the phone to Power trying to get him to change his mind.
He said: “I asked him to reconsider and explained the reasoning behind Sam’s Tweet but he didn’t accept that, even when I pointed out that the player himself had spread the news on social media.
“Lee said he felt the club had felt let down but I think to ban the whole paper is an overreaction.
“I can understand that the club did not want to give Peterborough any advantage and I felt that we abided by that. It was only when the news became public that we tweeted it and added it to our matchday live blog.
“That was just 45 minutes before team sheets were handed in. We can see how well Posh managed to take advantage of the news by the fact that Ranger scored after 28 minutes.
“I can respect that Lee wants to do the best for his club and the fans but I don’t think banning the Adver is going to achieve that. He has steadied the club and given it a new direction since he took over but I think this is more controversy the club can do without.
“I can assure fans that Sam will still be at games, even if he has to pay to sit in the stands at the County Ground, and we will move heaven and earth to continue to provide the very best coverage of Swindon Town, both in the paper and online.”
The ban will not apply to away games, such as tonight’s visit to Stevenage or Saturday’s trip to Gillingham.
Power told the paper: “I was told by [Town manager] Mark Cooper that [Peterborough boss] Darren Ferguson had said that they saw Sam’s Tweet and changed their team.”
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Football clubs really do need to grow up …
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Crazy stuff from club. As if it made a scrap of difference.
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Footballers (and by extension team managers) are by their very nature little boys who never grew up. When they throw their toys out of the pram, they really should have their legs slapped and be ignored until they toddle off to bed.
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I am with the club on this. They hand in their teamsheet at a certain time for a reason, and are full justified in punishing anyone who breaks what is effectively an embargo . Besides what good does it do a newspaper to tweet information. It does nothing for sales and brings in no revenue.
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Unbelievable pettiness by the club….totally pathetic.
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Team sheet embargo? It can be handed in any time up to 30 minutes before kick off! Often it is done long before that and teams are on Sky’s sports app an hour or more before the start.
And let’s not break any signing stories either, eh? May force Peterborough to field an extra defender ..
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These tinpot tyrants at soccer clubs really are pathetic. They all think they’re Alex Ferguson!
You’d think the oafs in management would realise that the local paper is their best source of free advertising.
Let’s face it – who else is interested in Swindon Town?
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I know when team sheets are handed in – I covered professional football for decades. They are the confirmation of the team selection. Clubs have every right to keep their team confidential until they release the team sheet.
When will reporters realise that they can’t tweet what they like when they like?
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Sorry. Didn’t realise it was against the law to get a story, or as it actually was, a speculative tweet…”I understand that….”
And guess what? It was NO secret down here and had already been the subject of radio comment…
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Petty from the football club. I’m sure they benefit commercially from all the free advertising they get in papers – for starters kit sponsors get plastered over the back pages
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Northernhack, perhaps it is because you’ve been involved in journalism for decades that you are so out of touch with today’s concept of live news and the pressure reporters are under to be first.
Maybe in your day you could sit on breaking news until the next edition. Sadly, that’s not the case now and journos must keep up with social-media obsessed Joe Bloggs who lives next to the stadium, whose mum is a councillor, dad a policeman and wife a hospital press officer.
Football clubs need to remember it’s just a game. If only our politicians had so much passion.
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Or perhaps with my vast experience I am right – the football club seems to think so and they have dealt with the media for longer than any of us have been around – in all it’s formats.
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Northernhack, that “vast experience” can’t include basic grammar?
“… in all it’s formats” – tut, tut!
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true slip of the finger on mobile – see i am up to date with technology
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