By Tyne-Talk
November 1 2013

Just a week after Mike Ashley and Co banned NCJ Media from covering press conferences, they have now banned the Newcastle United Supporters Trust from attending the Fans Forum. It came to light that The Journal, The Sunday Sun and The Chronicle were all banned from access to media facilities last weekend after manager Alan Pardew was prevented from answering questions from their journalists after the derby defeat. The news added more negativity on a club which seems to jump from one media disaster to another.

Today the Trust have announced that they too have fallen victim to Mike Ashley's arrogance.

In September the Trust were given a permanent place on the Fans Forum and they attended that months meeting before publishing a very relevant article in the following days.

Now the Trust has been prevented from attending the December forum and any there-after.

They released the following statement;

“In the same week that we organised a successful conference on fan engagement at Newcastle University Business School, covered by the BBC and attended by delegates from all over the country, the club have barred the local press and the only elected fans’ body from interacting with Newcastle United.

At the same time at a national level, the Government’s Culture Media and Sports Select Committee have recommended that football clubs develop meaningful and structured relationships with supporters.

They say the first casualty of war is the truth. The fans and local media don’t want to be at war with our football club, we just want a well run Newcastle United that values all of its supporters and the integral part NUFC plays at the heart of the local community.”

The news comes just days after the Newcastle United Supporters Trust issued their response to the local media ban. In that statement they said;

"The NUST Board were shocked and surprised to learn that the Journal, Chronicle and Sunday Sun have been banned by Mike Ashley. The local media plays a vital role in the flow of information between the footbal...l club and it's supporters, with the club having many avenues such as the match day programme, official website and social media to respond to any perceived injustice it feels, without the draconian and negative decision for all parties, of bullying the local press.

In a recently televised interview, the Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, in a rare moment of openness said ,in addition to Mike Ashley not understanding the football business, that "When he (Ashley) is upset he does things that aren't brilliant for the football club."
Unfortunately, we have found yet another example where Mike Ashley has got upset, the local newspapers having the temerity of reporting on a march by supporters who aren't happy with the running of the football club by Ashley.

This episode is yet another in a long line of embarrassing incidents that the football club and its supporters have had to suffer, thanks to a remote owner who runs Newcastle United with only lip service to the idea of a properly functioning board and management team.

Until the football club have an ownership structure that endeavours to work constructively with all parts of the local community, including the media and especially the supporters, Newcastle United appears doomed to continue in this day to day existence of moving from one 'own goal' to the next. A long-term plan built around an all-inclusive structure is the only way the club will ever stand a chance of achieving the potential we all know Newcastle United has in abundance."

NUFC Throwing Link With Fans Away As NUST Next To Be Banned

Discussion started by TyneTalk (IP Logged), 01/11/2013 10:24

TyneTalk
01/11/2013 10:24

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MissC
01/11/2013 10:32

This is disgusting, its shows the club are not prepared to give the fans an outlet.

However, I have read elsewhere that all who attended the meeting were asked not to publish the info until after the club had released their official minutes.

The Trust went live before this actually happened (though the argument would be that they went live when NUFC said they would - but NUFC failed to meet their own deadline).

If the Trust went ahead regardless of the club's request I can see why they are not able to attend the next meeting. What I fail to understand is if that is indeed the reason, they why not ban them immediately.

Instead it looks like NUFC didn't like their response to the initial media ban and this is the outcome. That is not acceptable.

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CNDShearerFan16
01/11/2013 15:32

Look out we're next boys and girls!

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mentalman
01/11/2013 16:46

I've spoke to a few people who are heavily involved in going to these fans meetings and they are relieved that the NUST has been banned, that is however due to their opinions on the individuals.


Is this official, have the club confirmed this, i can see why they wouldn't be happy about them releasing the facts from the meeting before the club had agreed to them, its common practice in business not to release minutes of meetings until all parties have agreed to them whether a deadline has to be postponed or not but it seems a bit overkill to ban them.

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