August 28, 2007

Football club bans Evening Standard from home matches

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has banned the Evening Standard from covering home matches and press conferences saying ‘enough is enough’after it received heavy criticism for recent behaviour.

The north London based club issued the ban after it took offence at a series of articles published in the paper by its sports columnist (and Spurs fan) Matthew Norman, which criticised the club’s chairman, Daniel Levey.

Steve Cording, deputy sports editor at the Evening Standard, wrote on the back page today: ‘The Evening Standard supports all London clubs with equal vigour. Success for them is good news for us and the signs before the season started were that Spurs would be pushing for a place at the top of the Premier League. England manager Steve McClaren told this newspaper that he believed Jol’s team, with so many home-grown players, would finish in the top four. The Evening Standard will continue to bring you, our readers, all the latest news from Spurs.”

A spokesperson for Tottenham Hotspur FC said: ‘Evening Standard journalists will not be granted access to press conferences and matches. Please not that this decision has been taken by the club’s management board, not in haste and at a time when quite simply ‘enough is enough’. The timing of this is in no way related to comments generated as a result of the past few days’ events – Matthew Normal’s person attacks continue regardless of what happens at the club.”

This is not the first time a football club has snubbed the media. West Ham United, placed an interview ban on ITV’s London Tonight earlier this year after following a report of a drugs raid at Faces nightclub in Ilford. The report made reference to the fact that West Ham players regularly visited the night spot, although no West Ham players were at the club on the night of the raid.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has also refused to give interviews to the BBC.