I’ve hit a bit of dead end on this, mostly because sources I know close to this won’t speak on the record about what they know.
I will say this for now: I have reason to believe that Oliver Kay, the writer who broke this story, did in fact get the relevant details of this story including the name Dream Football League from Rob Beal, and that the details were almost certainly cribbed from the Cahiers du Football article. Several others have independently verified this not with Kay, but with Beal (he could also be lying, but I doubt it).
I also have reason to believe that Kay or his editors may have unwittingly or purposefully misled those involved into thinking Kay knew this information prior to Tuesday, when CdF first published their satirical piece. I also do not know this for certain. I do know that CdF stands by their story, and there is no reason to believe they’d have a reason to lie.
Finally, while I have no proof otherwise, I know people close to Kay are adamant that he likely had several sources, not one, and that the core story is likely built on a kernel of truth. I have since heard of a feasibility study possibly paid for by Qatar in 2010 on such a league. Certainly, no one reacted with incredulity that the football-ambitious Qatar would come up with such a plan. It’s not far-fetched they would be moving on something, particularly with the regular threats of the European Club Association going it alone apart from UEFA.
Therefore my guess (just a guess lawyers) is that Kay heard something in the mix, Beal did a quick search, and fed him information from Cahiers on the hunch that it was true. And for whatever reason, Kay may have used them without checking up on them further. Beal after presents himself as a Paris based media insider, despite ample evidence he is permanently based in Sheffield.
One journalist I spoke with did mention that this thing “happens more often than you might think.” This isn’t news to those of us who follow the rumour cycle closely, but this one is different. It clearly feeds into a concrete fear in Europe of Qatar ‘buying’ European football as their own play thing. This sort of story has consequences.
I need to stress that most involved have repeatedly backed up Kay as a trustworthy, thorough journalist. I have no reason to doubt them, but the closing of the ranks despite all that has emerged in the past 24 hours is more than a little depressing. We’re not covering the war here—it’s just football, really—but a mistake—probably an honest one, but I don’t know—was likely made, and it will soon get buried.
I did my part. If you know something about this and want to speak on the record, please let me know.
I think the most concrete evidence is that the teams listed have denied the reports as well as qatar football.
Have they though? Do you have a link?
qatar FA for sure, I thought I saw that some clubs came out but I can’t find anything so I must have been wrong. even though it was the royal family that was identified in the orignal articles but there is no way they wouldnt have involved the fa, you would think…
You can probably file this under “fake but accurate.”
There’s probably enough shreds of evidence out there that someone in Qatar has at sometime considered something like the DFL, and someone at some level from Euro Clubs might be open to considering it under the right circumstances. But is it imminent and in the way reported? Not likely. But there’s probably just enough cover for those now embarrassed to say it seemed good enough.
Might a significant factor in the circling of the wagons on this be a desire by outlets who billboarded stories such as the “Gulf Megabid for Arsenal” not to have their own practices examined too closely?
Nice work on this, Richard. Very intriguing story, I hope it doesn’t die.
Hi Richard,
I would like to know… Have you ever heard, somewhere, somehow, even on a satiric website about a possibility that some stadions may decline to host the next rugby world cup? Here is the article from Richard Escot, who is covering rugby for “L’Equipe”, the biggest sport French newspaper:
http://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Actualites/Menaces-sur-le-mondial/356102
And I really wonder if the sources he is invocating, close to the IRB or Sir Alex Ferguson, haven’t also fooled him as Kay’s ones did… Wouldn’t they be the same? I find strange to have hoaxes in serious newspapers such as “Times” and “L’Equipe” the same week…
O_o … Where do you take that L’Equipe is a serious newspaper ?
it’s the first (and only) french daily newspaper on sports, but it’s not a lot more serious than the Sun.
As bad as the sun? You’ve got to be kidding. L’équipe is pretty decent. They even produced some very good scoops every now and then, e.g. about Lance Armstrong’s doping (although the rest of the world dismissed it, at the time, as “the French are jealous”).
And they also were the first to say “Beckam au PSG, c’est fait !”.
A year before everyone else.
Perhaps not as bad as the Sun, but certaintly nothing to compare to the Times (or so I hope for Times readers).
So did the News of the World (i.e. the cricket spot-fixing scandal) it doesn’t mean they were a serious paper
“L’Equipe” was relatively good until Amaury group bought them… As Times was good until Murdoch bought them (their standards have nevertheless a bit decreased).
“I need to stress that most involved have repeatedly backed up Kay as a trustworthy, thorough journalist.”
Yeah, indeed, everybody seems to say so. Problem is, if he’s so trustworthy and thorough, why doesn’t he own up ? Why doesn’t he apologize to les Cahiers du Football instead of insinuating they might be lying (while they’re obviously not) ?
I understand it must be very embarrassing for him. But IMO his attitude since yesterday is even more embarrassing and even more of a stain on his apparently impeccable rep.
This whole saga appears to be another blow to journalism and British journalism in particular.
It appears, maybe, possibly, but not confirmed (does that keep me safe?), that Kay got duped into filing a mostly (or entirely) bogus story and one of the world’s premier newspapers ran it. Now nobody wants to talk about it? Why exactly? Too embarrassing?
This strikes me as another example of the results from huge pressures of finances and competition in journalism, combined with instant news cycles and the mass diversification of sources and media. In an age where the diversity of sources should really require journalists to take more time and care in investigating stories, the pressures of needing instant content forces them to do less. Mediocre journalists have little incentive to follow-up on sources and stories, and even good ones can succumb to those pressures.
Surely someone should be writing about the implications and connections between incidents like that of Jayson Blair, reporting in America and Britain leading up to the Iraq war, the phone hacking scandal, and smaller but still significant instances like this? There’s a media/communications masters thesis topic for you right there.
What’s shocking is not so much that Kay made a mistake – that can happen to everybody. But he’s not owing up to it. He repeats that he was never misled about anything, even though it has become obvious that most of his article is just a reproduction of the French spoof. And what’s more – the Times supports him! All these people are either frankly incompetent, or cynical enough to cover up and hide the truth, for the sake of their reputation. Which raises questions about everything they publish.
The Arsenal mega bid story has already been mentioned, but you have to wonder if there are other stories involved? False stories get planted in the press all the time by people with an agenda or vested interest, after all, so this is hardly a new phenomenon.
You could speculate it would be harder to hold up your hands if you are aware you’ve been duped over a longer period, or that others have fallen foul of the same thing.
Or possibly not. Maybe it’s simply a case of trying to avoid a storm of Twitter abuse. A terror of social media is enough to keep plenty of big brands from using it altogether for fear of negative publicity, even when there is a lot of money to be made from it. A journalist, or his paymasters, could easily have the same attitude, particularly given the industry’s current standing in the UK.
Hey Richard. One thing I don’t understand in all this is what motivation Rob Beal has to read a French satire website and then decide to try to fool a journalist with the story?
Is he just being sadistic? Is there some way he could have gained personally? Usually when people try to feed stuff to reporters there’s a very obvious reason for doing so.
heard a lot of hearsay that this is what he does…I can only think that the more articles he’s a source for the more people would come to him/use him, otherwise i don’t see how he stood to gain anything unless he was paid for the info…