Sports News is one of those subjects that seem to bubble up every time there is a major sporting event. It seems that the sports media, which seems to enjoy almost a monopoly in coverage of almost all sports, is also the one that most people turn to in their quest for information. There was a recent example of this phenomenon in the build up to the European Football Championships, where sports journalists were virtually begging the games governing body FIFA for breaking news on the eve of the tournament’s start. A few days later the big headlines were about football’s favorite team, Manchester United. A piece in the Daily Mail mentioned that the Red Devils was not planning on playing their quarterfinal series against Chelsea, simply because Jose Mourinho had chosen to take his team off town for their crucial cup clash with Sevilla the following Sunday.
Although the Manchester United front office may have been doing their best to maintain the privacy of their players during the tournament, the damage was already done. The whole world picked up on the story and the world-wide-web was flooded with what was essentially a leaked internal memo. This sparked a flurry of off-line sports stories about the situation at Old Trafford, with even the Daily Record referring to the matter as a “Fergiegate”. Even the Scottish newspaper the Herald Sun carried some news on the matter, with their sports writer suggesting that the players’ strike had been sparked by a difference of opinion between Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham. The whole thing became so blown out that a meeting between the Uefa and the Fergie camp was called off without any progress being made.
It is therefore clear that sports news is not necessarily a free for all for the fans to see and is often best avoided by the informed sports fan. This may sound obvious, but it is something that many fans seem to forget from time to time, perhaps out of a desire to be seen indulgent and rather than correct the situation. Fans are urged to remember that the sports news is there for them to use and not simply to read about events that they do not care about. If a fan wants to read about football or rugby, then this is a newspaper that they should be reading, no matter how much the latest gossip from Chelsea hampers their appetite for the other games.