Ladbrokes SPFL-PR warning media to stop title stripping talk

I’m told by a broadcast journalist friend that Jim Traynor, of PR company Level5, started Newco Rangers broadcast media conference yesterday with a warning to journalists that discussion about title stripping was off limits.

The law was that if manager Mark Warburton was asked about the proposed sanction for Oldco Rangers financial doping the conference would be stopped.

Say what you like about journalists, but they regard being told what to ask, or not to ask, as a line in the sand issue. Traynor, a journalist for decades, should have known better than to make such a rookie mistake.

He was told that attempts to subvert discussion about Oldco being stripped of titles is not something that would be accommodated. By the broadcast media, anyway.

Warburton was subsequently asked about title stripping and although he was happy to answer, I’m told, this angered the would-be news-denier, whereupon he “lost his temper”.

Post-conference there was a bit of chat about how they would be able to appropriately report on less-partisan issues, like the Level5 PR-controlled Ladbrokes SPFL, although there was a consensus that “He’ll fall out with everyone soon enough. He always does”.