A football manager has banned a local weekly newspaper from his club after it published a story about one of his players leaving.
Needham Market FC has barred the Bury Free Press from covering their matches or obtaining quotes after the paper ran an exclusive about the departure of young striker Adam Mills.
When approached for his views and version of events, manager Mark Morsley declined to comment on the record and threatened to ban the BFP if a story was published.
But Free Press sports editor Russell Claydon said he felt not publishing the story would have “brought the whole paper’s journalistic integrity into question and was not in the best interest of our readers.”
The exclusive story which prompted the ban
The circumstances of Mills’ departure centred on a disputed allegation of spitting levelled against him during a match, which did not make it into the referee’s report.
While Mills and his father, Geoff, issued a denial, the Free Press revealed Morsley had fined the striker two weeks’ wages and banned him for eight matches, before later retracting it.
After the story was published, Morsley wrote a lengthy blog post on the ban for Needham Market’s official website, with Russell coming in for particular criticism.
He claimed the Mills family had approached the Free Press in a bid to “slur” him and that the story should have been “shredded”.
He wrote: “(As well as Mills) the next losers are the Bury Free Press because they will no longer be able to report on our games and how the football club is developing.
“We are a progressive club run by excellent people, we have two academies and we are ambitious.
“All this points to good stories going forward and I suspect that the supporters in and around Needham will no longer be spending their £1.20 each week on the BFP. That then means the next losers are the local outlets that sell the paper.
“Russell Claydon also does not come out of this well either. Not only will the readers of the story see it for what it is, they will always relate this to him. He clearly feels that his newspaper needs a bit of ‘shock and awe’ but I am not sure that printing the personal agenda of one individual is that.”
The non-league side play in the Isthmian League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football.
The ban was reported on the back page of Friday’s Free Press, pictured below.
Free Press editor Paul Richardson said: “It is disappointing, as the Bury Free Press has covered the highs and lows of Needham Market FC for many years and, as one of the sponsors, remain committed to the best coverage we can provide.
“I hope the club re-considers their position when they have put everything into perspective.”
The newspaper’s coverage of the club’s ban on Friday’s back page
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Frankly, the affairs of Needham Market football club are hardly of the greatest importance to the readers of the BFP.
I doubt many in the town or village will be concerned.
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Just unintentionally hilarious
Needham Market’s press team (aka Ken The Cleaner) must be spitting feathers
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How many people watch Needham Market? Do what JP and their ilk does, Get the club the send in a report and pictures. Yes, totally biased and horribly written but it will give the few supporters who read it a chuckle.
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They need the bury free press more than the BFP need them, let them stew and they’ll soon come back fawning for coverage.
The others aren’t interested unless it’s Ipswich town so bide your time and enjoy their unease at lack of coverage
BFP 1 NMFC 0
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Love the idea first the paper loses out because it can’t report, then the supporters won’t buy the paper and then the outlets will suffer. But wait, the paperboys have been made redundant and Tiny Tim is left with a hacking cough and no future. The advertisers desert in droves but the knock back is nobody sees their adverts and they go bust. The paper mill supplying BFP goes bust and the delivery drivers are laid off. The knock on effect is Greggs suffers a catastrophic fall in sales on pies and pasties. Jobs cuts follow. An overwhelming sense of depression sweeps the north west. Factories close, breadwinners head south in search of work. The south declares independence and instigates a border from Ipswich to Cheltenham, which it closes. Wales declares itself a tax free principality and Scotland sells itself to Donald Trump and becomes the 51st State of the USA. And all because BFP thought it was okay to print the news.
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I thought Ron Knee was the manager of Neasden FC? What do Sid and Doris Bonkers think about it?
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Some derogatory comments towards non league football here. Needham Market play at a good level and people are paying to go and see them. I think they and the readers who can’t go deserve better than a sent in report and pictures. Talking to managers is vital for local papers to provide good sport coverage and is an advantage they have over those who cover ‘Premier’ League clubs where you have to share quotes from press conferences between reporters.
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Needham’s most recent crowd was 135, which would include the statutory freebies for club officials and hangers-on. Free Press must be quaking…
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@John Nevill
Just to point out the BFP is at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, not Bury, Lancs. Easily confused. That’s not to say the depression caused by this momentous Needham Market FC decision could not reach the north west. It might.
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Sadly, you occasionally find bullies like this in football but if there’s a consolation, it is that it never works out for them.
Inevitably they get their comeuppance because the way they treat the Press is usually indicative of the way they treat other people inside the game and once there is a bad run of results, retribution comes surprisingly swiftly.
I would advise reporter Claydon and the BFP to continue taking it in their stride and show the sort of class which is beyond their thin-skinned critic.
One thing I can guarantee statistically is that at some stage, Morsley can expect to lose his job – it’s all part of being a football manager – at which point he is likely to realise that in order to get back into the game he could really benefit from some positive and profile-raising media coverage.
When that lightbulb moment comes, he’ll suddenly think: “Oh……”
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I had to double check it wasn’t April 1 when I read this story.
With the greatest respect to Ryman League Needham Market, the market and interest in non-league football is pretty limited.
They should be grateful for any publicity they are given instead of issuing these pathetic bans and threats.
If the sports ed had any sense he would ditch covering Needham Market FC completely and concentrate instead on Championship Ipswich Town from just down the road.
I am pretty certain that would sell a lot more papers and generate plenty of traffic on their website.
When Mark Morsley then starts begging for his club to be covered again by the Bury Free Press they should tell the deluded cretin where to go.
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The BFP will be around long after Mr Morsley’s tenure as manager as ended – probably when he gets the age old order of the tin tack.
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Funniest thing I’ve read in ages. “Ron Manager spits his dummy out in shock and awe spat with media magnate”. You couldn’t make it up.
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Actually, looking at their nine home defeats and form sending them hurtling into the drop zone, the Spanish archer must be pretty close…
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Too many of the comments miss the point – there are petty minded “bosses” out there in all forms of life who think they can order the Press about – no, the paper shld continue to report the stupid antics of the stupid club and sod it. No-one shld tell a newspaper what it can/can’t do.
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Outside left. My well suported local Ryman Premier club has to send in its own report to a JP rag. Needham, a team hardly anyone bothers to watch, should be glad a reporter attends. Arrogant!
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