How to make a sports story out of nothing

Published: 16th June, 2011
SUMMER DIARY by RICHARD OSLEY

WHAT a desperate time it is for football fans, feeding off the crumbs of under-21s football and reading the nationals in hope of new signings.

But what a desperate time it is for national football journalists too. 

Deprived of their “free” stories handed out to them on press releases and press conferences during the season, they root around dreaming about who will sign who. 

In this guessing game, you will see the same players linked with Manchester City and Manchester United, while players that Arsenal are interested in are also joining Spurs. Clearly there’s not much of an effort made.  

I’m not a national sports hack and maybe they have wonderful sources and contacts – but you just can’t help thinking that so many stories are based on threadbare information. 

Maybe national football journalists have too much of a prescribed life for the other nine months of the year. 

Go to match. Watch match. 

Eat buffet. Write what you saw.

Go to press conference.

Ask an obvious question. 

If you can accurately write down things that happen before your eyes and things that are said at a staged press conference, you should be fine. 

It’s a shame that instead of pushing out stories like Peter Odemwingie is signing for Arsenal our dedicated hacks don’t use their time to really investigate the game’s hidden stories. They should probe the way countries get to host the World Cup, the ridiculous money that agents command, the possible use of bungs on some transfers.

They could do more on season ticket prices, ticket touting, match-fixing or the depression among players who retire through injury. 

Hey, they could even ask whether the cleaners at the big-earning clubs are getting the London Living Wage. There’s so much they could do. 

Instead, with only a few exceptions, they write muggy transfer mush.