Football Association say sorry

Last updated : 08 March 2003 By Tony Scholes

On their web site they ignored us on the day of the draw and previewed the tie between Watford and Fulham and then when we upset them again by beating Fulham they couldn’t even spell Ternent correctly.

Today though as they previewed the ties they included ‘Gunners v Blues’, ‘Blades v Whites’, ‘Saints v Wolves’ and ‘Hornets v …….’ – that’s right we had disappeared.

We have contacted the FA on all three occasions and did suggest that there was some conspiracy against Burnley, maybe they have never forgiven us for Bob Lord’s behaviour in 1974.

This evening we have received a reply from them, in fact from Daniel Freedman the News Editor of their web site.

Freedman writes,

"The first word I would like to offer is sorry.

"Your gripe is entirely understandable and all I can hope to do is convince you that any errors on our part are mistakes rather than some kind of 'anti-Burnley' vendetta.

"To take things chronologically, I hold my hands up and say that, as news editor of the site, I take full responsibility for both initially missing Burnley off the draw analysis and then spelling Stan Ternent's name incorrectly.

"The fact that both pieces were corrected and some serious questions have been asked since is, as you say, irrelevant. I can only apologise and guarantee this will never happen again.

"As for the final point, please be assured that it's only the length of the two nicknames that has prevented the Clarets from appearing on the portlet. When the number of characters gets too high the publishing tool cuts out the second word - not really something that you need to care about but it just explains how it has come about.

"Ultimately, I can only apologise and try to reassure you that there is certainly no anti-Burnley bias at TheFA.com. We have made two mistakes and I acknowledge them and take full
responsibility.

"I hope that you'll continue to look at the site and see that this is very much the exception rather than the rule."

So they are sorry and they won’t do it again. Needless to say the eagle eyed Clarets will be keeping a close watch on the site in the future.