THE National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is set to speak to various football leagues this week in an attempt to curb the growing trend of reporters being banned from football clubs.

General secretary Michelle Stanistreet wrote to FA chairman Greg Dyke last week urging him to stop clubs from banning journalists from matches and press conferences.

Dyke claimed his hands were tied because “the clubs are members of the leagues in which they play and it is for their leagues to set down requirements for the clubs.”

But Stanistreet is now preparing talk to the Premier League, Football League and Scottish League to solve this problem as she feels the FA are not taking the matter seriously.

She said: “We wanted Greg Dyke and the FA to take a lead on this and he knows all to well of his own experiences as a journalist how important a role sport reporting plays in local and national newspapers.

“We’ve had a reply back in which he says he has asked his team to speak to the leagues to check out their positions but as far as the FA is concerned, and as far as those individual leagues are concerned, it is entirely up to the clubs to come up with their own policies about how they deal with the media and we don’t believe that is good enough.

“We want the FA to take this seriously, we want those individual leagues to take action and that’s why the NUJ will be in touch with the leagues this week to find out precisely what they are going to do to combat this problem.”

The letter was originally sent after the Blackpool Gazette was barred from attending a friendly between Blackpool and Morecambe.

It is just one example of clubs using their power to dictate how they are covered.

The BBC are now boycotting Scottish club Rangers a reporter was banned for writing negative stories.

“Sports reporting is a vital part of any newspaper worth its salt,” said Stanistreet.

“It’s pretty staggering that clubs, mostly run by blokes with big wads of cash and clearly very fragile egos are so hell-bent on rejecting objective reporting of what they are getting up to.

“They are actually banning reporters from carrying out their work. We think it is bad for journalism and local papers who are covering these stories.

“But it is also bad for fans who deserve much better than being fed the kind of anodine and stage-mangaged cheerleading stories about the clubs and players that they’re so committed to.

“And that’s why the NUJ has been calling for this kind of trend, the preventing of independent reporting at clubs, to stop.”