Statement: twofootedtackle and The Sun

Yesterday it was brought to my attention that twofootedtackle.com has been included in a World Cup sweepstake competition by The Sun, a tabloid newspaper in the UK. The issue was brought to light by Tom Dunmore at Pitch Invasion, who re-posted a statement from Chris Taylor.

I wish I could say that this website has had no involvement whatsoever with the newspaper in question. Sadly, I can't do that. I was approached on its behalf by an agency several weeks ago and agreed, against my better judgement, to give them a prediction for each of the three England matches in South Africa. I'm ashamed to say that the prospect of some traffic in exchange for what amounts to three short emails briefly outweighed my distaste for The Sun.

I did not agree for the site's name or logo to be used as part of The Sun's so-called Blogger World Cup Sweepstake. I was not, to the best of my recollection, even made aware of its existence.

Gary Andrews pointed out that the list of blogs involved would make any PR person's eyes water. There are writers there who are almost unreachable by other bloggers, let alone PR people. That's one of the big issues here: it's not about money, or traffic, or copyright. It's about The Sun making something appear successful when in fact it is entirely fabricated.

The other issue, of course, is affiliation with a newspaper that (a) is owned by Murdoch, (b) has a disgraceful record when it comes to football controversy and (c) is rightly boycotted on Merseyside for its despicable accusations in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster. I made a mistake in agreeing to be involved in anything, but the bloggers who didn't must be mortified to be involved in this.

I will not be continuing to contribute my predictions to The Sun, and I will never have any involvement with it in the future. I wouldn't buy it or read it, so I should never have agreed to use it for an ego boost.

Chris Nee