The Times:
There was, as Little Britain's Andy would say, a bit of a kerfuffle at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The basics you will know. Didier Drogba had a storming game at centre forward, scored two goals, played some basketball for one and generally fell over a lot, as he does.
When he was revealed to have been voted man of the match, there were boos amid the cheers, too loud to be coming from the Manchester City end alone. Drogba then went off to be interviewed by the television stations, standing in for José Mourinho, who is in the middle of a hissy fit because he has not been fêted, knighted, declared the victor in the Champions League against Barcelona or whatever the hell it is he thinks he deserves for being special in England. Shortly afterwards, various TV types emerged from the room with the red "ON AIR" sign over the door, shaking their heads in disbelief. Then the fun began.
Drogba, it emerged, had told the BBC that he did handle the ball for his second goal, that this was part of the game and that he did dive, although when pressed he retracted the last statement. Clearly, this was significant information and a copy of the interview was requested by print journalists. Reluctantly, Chelsea's press officer agreed. Except, when the tape arrived, it had been mysteriously edited. There was a skip, at which point the interviewer asked: "So you are saying you dive?" followed by Drogba's frantic denial.
As an exercise in news management, it was the most ham-fisted operation since the FA's spin-doctor tried to divulge details of the England head coach's sex life to the News of the World to preserve the dalliances of the chief executive. Instantly, Chelsea's attempt to cover up Drogba's admission of cheating became as much the story as the cheating itself, with the suggestion the BBC had been placed under pressure to edit the tape.
It appears that there was a compromise, with the interview broadcast in full, showing admission and denial. In the Match of the Day studio, Lee Dixon was extraordinarily lenient on Drogba, accepting that his confession may have been the result of misinterpretation. It would be fascinating to discover how indulgent he would have felt towards Drogba as an opponent; at Arsenal, he did not seem enamoured of the similarly footloose David Ginola.
Leaving Stamford Bridge, it was possible to imagine Mourinho as head of a gang of moustache-twirling villains in a bad black and white movie. "Ha! So you win this time, independent media. But wait until we, the clubs, control all access to our product and you shall see our power. Try getting to the truth, then. Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Most correspondents knew that Drogba had handled to score Chelsea's second goal because (a) it was visible to the naked eye and (b) it was shown in replays broadcast on television monitors in the press box. At half-time, those still unsure gathered around a larger screen downstairs, where Chelsea TV was showing reruns of the significant incidents.
Drogba's second goal was featured from numerous angles, all inconclusive. The footage later broadcast on Match of the Day, which left no doubt that there had been an infringement was, oddly, also unavailable at the stadium. So there, in microcosm, is football's future. The day the clubs are the sole source of broadcast information, reality TV goes out the window quicker than a halfdecent player at Southampton. You will see and hear what they want you to see and hear.