The Speccie leads with sport

I wonder how often the Spectator magazine has led with a football story but this week it does and a cracking piece from former BBC man Mahir Bose who writes that the game is England may be beautiful but it is also broke

Last week’s Financial Times carried an advert seeking a buyer for the bankrupt Crystal Palace. Portsmouth FC, winner of the FA Cup just two years ago, is unable to meet players’ wages or pay for a website. Dozens of clubs are wrestling with their creditors, and the game is effectively divided into two financial leagues: those with, and without, a foreign sugar daddy to write the cheques.

and he adds

Worse still, the global success of the English game has done nothing to nurture English, or even British, talent. It has never been harder for an English player to make it in the English Premier League.

Old and new sports journalism clashes

The old and the new faces of Sports Journalism clashed at last night's Journalism leaders forum at the University of Central Lancs.The old was represented by Mihir Bose,Sports Editor with the BBC and with many years experience of sports journalism.The new was Phil Townsend, Director of Communications for Manchester United whose previous incarnation was as Press Officer to the Sports Minister.


What Mihir represented were the day's long gone when sport stayed on the back page and the journalists job ended with the final whistle.What Phil represented is the new power of sport in dictating the content that we read,of controlling media access and of recognising that sport in itself is big business so why should independent news organisations get the benefits.

The highlight of the evening was Mahir's comment that Sir Alec Ferguson didn't need any lessons in spin,in fact he could have even given a better lesson that Alstair Campbell on how to spin the back pages

It is a dangerous route to take.One question that kept cropping up was that of impartiality.If clubs control the output how can the public be given access to a proper debate? In this sense though is it any different to politics and the rise of the Alistair Campbells of this world?

It was fitting that at the end the final question came from a journalist who pointed out that sport was not just about football but that there were other sports to consider.

NFL curtails coverage

How long before it starts here?

Editor and Publisher report on the many restrictions that the media face on the coverage of the new NFL season in the States,specifically wrankling are

1. New online video limitations that allow only 45 seconds of any game-related video clip to be used online; require such clips to be removed after 24 hours; and bar archiving of such footage.

2. A 20% reduction in sideline access credentials, which at least one newspaper has said cut its media credential allotment by one.

3. New requirements that all sideline still photographers wear red vests to distinguish them from other credentialed media.

The article continues:

The rule changes, which will take effect when the pre-season kicks off in August, have already sparked complaints and talk of protests by photo editors who contend the moves are another effort to promote television coverage and diminish competitive print.

Interesting developments,obvious based on the fact that the Nfl no longer sees the newspaper as the preferred medium for carrying its product.Our attention span is obviously no more than 45 seconds.

Worrying developments