A football club has banned a regional daily from a press conference days after the newspaper urged its owners to sell up.

As reported by HTFP on Wednesday, the Coventry Telegraph issued a front page appeal to Coventry City owners Sisu to put the club on the market after what it termed “nine miserable years of failure” on and off the pitch.

The Telegraph was informed via a text message that it would not be granted access to the club’s management staff or players while it continues to call for City to be sold.

It meant the newspaper was locked out of Friday’s weekly pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s away game against Gillingham.

Tuesday’s front page appeal to Sisu

In the text, a club spokesperson wrote: “The board think it inappropriate that they provide access to any club staff at this point in time.

“It’s not a ‘ban’ – we just can’t offer engagement with the manager/players when the paper’s stance is as it is.”

A petition calling for Sisu to sell up attracted more than 11,000 signatures in less than 48 hours as well as support from high profile figures, including football writer Henry Winter and former City players such as Micky Quinn.

The Telegraph says it will continue to attend matches, home and away, in order to cover the team, who currently find themselves bottom of League One, English football’s third tier.

On Wednesday the Telegraph revealed it had been successful in getting a road named after former City manager Jimmy Hill, who died in December last year.

Other football clubs to hit regional newspapers with bans since the start of the 2016/17 season include Forest Green Rovers, while Chesterfield lifted a summer-long bar on the Derbyshire Times days before the club’s first match.