World Football: The Media Should Be More Responsible

The media is the only source through which fans get information about their clubs, and football in general. Admittedly, even I follow the football news very closely throughout the day to keep abreast with whatever is happening in the footballing world.

But some of the stories written in the media by certain tabloids are just nonsense.

I remember a couple of seasons ago, Jose Mourinho labelled Arsene Wenger a "voyeur." I didn't understand why the Portuguese manager had taken such a drastic measure in calling one of his colleagues such a thing because he clearly was in the loop as far as how things in the media work.

To quote Mourinho, "He's (Wenger) worried about us, he's always talking about us. It's Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea."

The funny thing is that, any quote you see or any vague references that you may come across are actually responses to a very well thought-out, tricky question.

Whatever Wenger said at the time, along with any other Chelsea-related quotes which Mourinho was referring to in his "120-page dossier", must, in-fact have been responses to questions posed by the media.

Nobody ever took notice of that. Not even a single media outlet made a statement that Wenger might have been responding to questions posed by them in the press-conferences (pre or postmatch). It was almost as if the media outlets were looking on with glee at the events which led to such a "story".

And Mourinho, being his eccentric self, made statements that he went on to regret.

Moving on to the "silly season" or the two months of "transfer frenzy" among the clubs, you can almost picture the tabloid editors rubbing their hands in anticipation with what they will be able to fill their papers.

When there is nothing to print, media outlets often print older statements and re-hash old stories. This has been mentioned before by many fans, but I discovered that this is exceptionally true for this close season.

In addition to the obvious Cristiano Ronaldos and Emmanuel Adebayors, there is one excellent example that shows the desperation of the English media in coming up with sensational news.

Last year, when Thierry Henry left Arsenal, various names were thrown about as to who will actually go on to replace him.

One such story appeared on a very popular (albeit, not in a good way) tabloid. The player in question was Rodrigo Palacio, who plays for Boca Juniors in Argentina. The tabloid claimed that "reports in Argentina suggested that he was heading to London for a medical pending a £15 million move to Arsenal."

The reports in Argentina were in fact a reference to a Boca Juniors fan blog, which had cooked up the story. This was a cover story for the day on that tabloid, and many fans believed in it, only for the writer in the Boca Juniors fan blog to declare two days later that this story was a hoax.

This just goes to show that there was no fact checking on part of that tabloid whatsoever. It was a pathetic attempt to cook up some sort of a story on their part and this will go down in my memory as a very poor piece of reporting.

Then come the quotes from individuals who claim to be the agents of players. These guys are just power brokers or what they call "super agents." They don't represent a player per se, but represent clubs which want to do "big deals."

Vincenzo Morabito, one such clown, was one that was given far too much importance this close season. None of his predictions (transfers-wise) have came true, and he is someone whose quotes I will closely follow in the future.

If it was up to me, I wouldn't even feature any of his quotes anywhere.

I know that it takes two to tango, and that it is impossible for the media to function without these sensational stories. But the sheer quantity of these stories has simply disgusted me. The veracity of the stories bandied about in the press is diminishing by the day.

I hope that fans understand that managers and players don't come out and make statements arbitrarily to the press.

Whatever you see in these news outlets are simply responses to well-designed questions. Some managers and players are inept at answering such questions, but this just goes to show what the media has become.

It's funny. I always thought that the game of football was played on the pitch. Today, though, the game is being played increasingly off the pitch, thanks to the media. That is a very dangerous precedent for institutions that should, in fact, be reporting the truth.

It's time for the media to clean up their act and become more responsible.