Neil Ashton, the football news correspondent of the Daily Mail and host of Sky Sport’s Sunday Supplement programme, is to join The Sun as chief football reporter.
Ashton will fill the vacancy created in May 2014 when Shaun Custis was promoted to become the head of sport content across all platforms in what was a major reshuffle of the sports department.
It is the second time that Ashton has left the Mail. He went to the News of the World in 2009, returning in 2011 to team up for the third time with head of sport Lee Clayton, his former boss at The People.
As football news correspondent, Ashton’s remit was to provide a steady stream of stories for the paper and website, and he also wrote an online column. More recently he has also had a column in the paper. In 2013 he was named sports news reporter of the year at the Sports Journalists’
Association awards.
Since the death of Brian Woolnough in 2012, Ashton has also presented the Sunday morning football discucssion show with guest journalists.
Earlier this year Ashton suffered from Bell’s Palsey, a facial paralysis, but was quickly back in front of the cameras and has recovered well.
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UPCOMING SJA EVENTS
- Tue Dec 1: Young sports journalists’ networking drinks
- Thu Dec 17: SJA British Sports Awards, sponsored by The National Lottery
- Mon Dec 21: Journalists’ Charity Carol service, St Bride’s
2016
- Mon Feb 22: SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, sponsored by BT Sport