From Guardian Unlimited
Chelsea Football Club barred Sun reporter Vikki Orvice from attending a press conference today after the tabloid ran a story about the private life of Ashley Cole, the team’s England left-back.
Orvice was contacted by Chelsea and told not to attend a press conference this morning at the club’s Cobham training ground to introduce new signing Branislav Ivanovic.
The Sun splashed a story about Cole’s private life on its front page today and the paper is convinced that the story prompted a reprisal from the club.
“This is a petty and childish decision by Chelsea after a great Sun exclusive that had nothing to do with the performance of the team on the pitch,” a Sun spokesman said.
“As usual, tomorrow’s Sun will have the best pre-match coverage of all the weekend fixtures including the Chelsea-Wigan cup tie.”
A club spokesman denied that Chelsea had instituted any long-term ban on the Sun attending its media events.
“No one has been banned or anything like that,” he said. “We felt it would be more appropriate to maintain our good relationship with the Sun newspaper if the journalist was not at the press conference today.”