A newspaper resorted to a Roy of the Rovers-style cartoon after photographers were banned from covering football matches.
The editor of the Plymouth Herald commissioned Plymouth Argyle fan Chris Robinson to sketch the team’s winning goal against Southampton after Southampton FC banned all press photographers from covering home games, apart from the club’s own official snappers.
Robinson said he created the cartoon at home, while watching the match on TV.
The club had sought to use a single photo agency for match pictures but the agency’s boss refused to play ball on grounds it would have been unfair to other media outlets which would have had to buy the images on ‘normal commercial terms’.
Confirming the ongoing ban, a spokesman for the club told us last night: ‘The club has decided to make available to external organisations photographic images taken by the club’s own professional sports photographers… The purpose of this is solely to protect the club’s commercial revenues derived from the use of its wholly-owned images.’
