Why banning photographers is not a good idea

The ingenuity of people has a tendency to come through in adversity and this case is not different. When Southampton football club banned photographers from a match against Plymouth Argyle  there was protest, and a reaction…. Instead of labouring the point, the Plymouth herald commissioned illustrator Chris Robinson to create drawing of key moments in the game. The Herald was not the only paper refusing to buy the official pictures. In fact, even the company tasked to take the official pictures spoke out against the move.

The Sun newspaper in the meantime used the occasion for their own ‘protest’ by publishing a match report without ever mentioning Southampton. The paper also had this to say:

While applauding Plymouth’s amazing victory we are deliberately ignoring one of the hottest title favourites in history. All this is down to Southampton’s draconian executive chairman Nicola Cortese. His totally crazy decision to ban national and local newspaper photographers from the game will hurt his club more than he thinks

 Ultimately Plymouth Argyle made their pictures of the game available to the public. Exclusivity may be the goal for some clubs but it won’t be achieved without a bit of a ‘people’s protest’ it seems.

TODAY we are printing the most one-sided match report in the history of The Sun.

Read more: