Saturday, April 13, 2013
Club sues newspaper
It would be ridiculous if a football club were to sue a newspaper because they did not like a match report but, in 1894, Newton Heath did exactly that.
The offending article appeared in the Birmingham Gazette, and concerned a Division One match against West Bromwich Albion.
Heath - who became Manchester United eight years later - won 4-1 but reporter William Jephcott was unimpressed by their rough play. "It was not football, it was simply brutality," he wrote. "If these are to be the tactics Newton Heath adopt to win their matches, the sooner the Football Association deal severely with them the better it will be for the game generally."
The offending article appeared in the Birmingham Gazette, and concerned a Division One match against West Bromwich Albion.
Heath - who became Manchester United eight years later - won 4-1 but reporter William Jephcott was unimpressed by their rough play. "It was not football, it was simply brutality," he wrote. "If these are to be the tactics Newton Heath adopt to win their matches, the sooner the Football Association deal severely with them the better it will be for the game generally."
