Newcastle United has started to ban certain reporters from St James’ Park – including Alan Oliver, who has covered the club for three decades.
According to a report by Charlie Sale in today’s Daily Mail, Oliver has been excluded after reporting that Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear was unwell.
After 30 years-or-so working for Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle, where he broke the story of Alan Shearer’s record transfer to the club and penned the book Geordie Messiah about Kevin Keegan’s career in the north-east, Oliver recently got a transfer of his own, moving to the People.
His colleague, Dave Kidd, recorded the ban this week by writing: “I got banned from St James’ Park this week – there must be 40,000 Geordies who wished they’d suffered the same punishment”.
In Oliver’s case, the Newcastle ban came just days after he received a lifetime achievement award for the dignified way he devoted a career to covering the team.
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