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The Football Association has said it will take action to prevent any more breaches of “press freedom” after a Daily Telegraph journalist was barred from covering last weekend’s heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois at Wembley,
Oliver Brown was denied entry to the fight between Joshua and Dubois after calling the bout, which was bankrolled by Saudi Arabia despite taking place in London, “an unashamed sportswashing exercise” in an article on 20 September. Dubois later won the fight with a devastating performance, knocking Joshua out in the fifth round.
But the FA, which owns Wembley, reportedly had “no involvement in the running” of the Saudi-backed event, and had “no knowledge Brown had been denied entry”, the fa-intervene-telegraph-reporter-barred/">Telegraph is reporting.
They have also said sources confirmed that any party using Wembley in the future “will now be forced to share with the FA any issues related to media accreditation in order for a resolution to be found”.
Despite taking place in London, the fight was billed as ‘Riyadh Season: Wembley Edition’, with the Saudi national anthem played before the bout and Saudi royal Turki Alalshikh sitting ringside throughout.
Former FA chairman David Bernstein said that Brown’s ban was “a flagrant breach of press freedom and free speech”.
“The FA and Wembley Stadium need to examine future agreements with users of the stadium to ensure that press independence is upheld,” he added.
Bernstein went on to say that the entire situation will only worsen and aired his concerns around the growth of Saudi influence in British sport, pointing out the need for an Independent Football Regulator.
“The huge influence of nation states in British sport, particularly football, is one of the reasons why a truly independent regulator for English football is needed,” he said.
Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, the chair of parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport select committee, said that the situation was “a slippery slope if venues are denying entry to journalists on the basis of what they have written”.
“I’m surprised at Wembley. I expected it to have more robust policies,” she added.
