The Spanish media don’t seem very happy with Manchester United’s treatment of the press.
Both AS and Sport have published articles this afternoon saying the club has been restricting access to pre-match press conferences, and will make an even bigger effort for the Manchester derby.
They claim that international correspondents were already banned from the Premier League conferences, and now Manchester United has, according to the claims, stopped UK outlets from sending more than one journalist each.
AS says the decision ‘wasn’t liked in England’, and Sport claims the decision ‘created controversy around Old Trafford’ and relates it to Louis van Gaal’s problems with the press during the last season.
As we’ve been following lately, the Manchester derby has been attracting huge coverage all over the world. Limiting access to the pre-match press conference may not be the best way of harnessing that worldwide interest and using it to help the club.
Spanish newspapers find it hard to understand, given the access they get, and the press conferences given, at Real Madrid, Barcelona, and other La Liga clubs.
Manchester City have made a special effort over the past year or so to invite journalists from outside the UK to cover them, and it’s certainly led to lots of column inches and helped the club raise their profile.
Way before Pep Guardiola was announced as Manchester City manager, the club had been inviting over Spanish journalists and feeding them full of huge claims, which ended up with a round of free PR.
It’s been a regular thing since, the access given to the Spanish press has been so good that Manuel Pellegrini got annoyed last year, had words with Ferran Soriano, and halted some of it.
Ahead of one the biggest Premier League games ever, as far as the world media are concerned, Manchester United are closing their doors, in contrast to the more welcoming Manchester City attitude to non UK media.
