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Stevenage Chairman Phil Wallace fired back at Confguide for it's article last Monday naming Wallace as the reason for stopping the live internet broadcast of this Tuesday's match between Stevenage and Exeter.
"Just what the reason they had for publishing half the facts of a story and where they got it from is lost on me. Yes, I did refuse to allow free Internet broadcasting of our live match against Exeter and for good reason."
"Being one of the people instrumental in concluding the Sky TV package for the Conference, which has resulted in great exposure and hundreds of thousands of pounds for Conference clubs, why should we continue to give away the rights to our live matches for free? The whole ethos of live games being broadcast is that clubs receive adequate compensation for the loss of fans that decide to stay at home and watch the match on their screen. I accepted that we needed to test this area 18 months ago and we have. We now know it works and its now time to commercialise it for the benefit of the clubs. If we can't sell it, then we'll wait until we can is my view."
"If we continue to go down a path of showing our live matches for free, then clubs at our level won't survive for long. Its hard enough as it is and giving away the only asset we have - the actual live game -for free is the first nail in the coffin of survival for many clubs unless they receive suitable compensation for the fans who stay at home."
Wallace's final comments were aimed directly at the owners of Confguide, and the operators of the official Conference site and conference football.tv, Teamtalk Media - "I'm particularly angry because Confguide who released half the story on their site are allegedly now owned or controlled by In the Box Media who want to broadcast the live matches for free."
As with the original Confguide article, Wallace's retort was not published on the Official Confrence site.
In other Conference news, Altrincham have signed ex-Man City youngster Chris Cloherty from Trafford FC. Cloherty has been Trafford's reserve keeper so far this season. Crawley have taken Yeovil Defender Andy Lindegaard on loan for a month. Lindegaard, 25, came through the Huish Park youth side but has only featured once for the League One side this season. Gravesend boss Liam Daish could find himself in trouble after slamming the Conference's only female referee, Amy Rayner, in Friday's Non League Paper - "It?s got to be said, the lady referee was out of her depth. She was not strong enough to handle that game. The pitch was knowhere near playable, and the game should have been called off. She?d have preferred to have been anywhere other than reffing Scarborough against Gravesend, because she knew she had made mistakes." Forest Green have extended the loan of Lewis Haldane, the 20 year old Bristol Rovers striker, until October and have allowed fellow striker Mark Danks to go on loan to Bromsgrove for two months. Cambridge have finally secured the services of ex-West Ham defender Tommy Laws, but have failed to sign ex-Shrew Leon Drysdale after the utility man stalled over terms.
