Telegraph Sport relives some of the famous moments that press conferences have produced
Sports press conferences are far from perfect – so often they can be tedious, lacking in any insight and, in some cases, little more than opportunities for glorified fans to fawn over the subject at the top table in the name of journalism.
For those on the receiving end of the questions, they are frequently an unwelcome byproduct of life as an elite sportsperson. Often coming before a crucial competition or in the immediate wake of an upsetting defeat, they require sportspeople who thrive on being in control of their own fortunes to confront questions they may otherwise not want to consider.
It is part and parcel of what can also make them so fascinating. For all their multitude of faults, press conferences provide a largely objective route for the public to the sportsperson in question. Where social media allows men and women in the public eye to portray exactly what they want about whatever subject they choose, press conferences require those same people to reveal thoughts and opinions on matters that perhaps do not fit the ideal narrative they wish to convey.
Without the cauldron of the press conference environment, for example, Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft would not have lied when questioned about what would later be known as “Sandpapergate”. His quotes would not have been a matter of public record. So, too, with the multiple denials cyclist Lance Armstrong gave throughout his career before later admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs.
And for all the regular tedium, they can also provide box-office fare – the ideal opportunity for a sportsperson to get something off their chest with maximum impact. From Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear’s expletive-laden rant in 2008, to Andy Murray’s tirade against the Lawn Tennis Association in 2015 and Mo Farah’s wholly unexpected attack on Haile Gebrselassie in 2019, they provide a chance for the people in the spotlight to speak their mind, sometimes about subjects they would never even have been questioned on.
In boxing, the press conference has even become a performance in itself; an occasion to sell a fight, build narratives and create storylines that will come to pass somewhere in the future.
The sports world would not only be a quieter place without them, but it would suffer from a vital lack of public scrutiny.
‘You’re a c—’: the great Kinnear outburst
By Luke Edwards
It was October 2008 and Newcastle United had been plunged into crisis by the sudden resignation of club legend Kevin Keegan. In one explosive statement, citing broken promises and boardroom interference, Keegan turned the entire fanbase against owner Mike Ashley.
He responded by putting the club up for sale (and yes he still hasn’t sold it) appointing Joe Kinnear as his replacement, an old drinking buddy who had not managed in the Premier League for nine years.
The reaction in the media, reflecting supporter dismay, had been lukewarm; Kinnear’s was red hot.
Marching into his first press conference, snarling and finger jabbing, he swore liberally, picked out two journalists and called one of them “a c***” and the other a disgrace. He then proceeded to come out with a series of wild claims and accusations, which mainly focused on how much he hated the written press, but also his own brilliance as a manager.
What followed was a remarkable exchange between journalists and Kinnear, in which a startled press officer tried to insist it was an off the record chat. Kinnear disagreed, saying we could print every word. Which we did. The interest in it from readers was off the scale.
It remains, to this day, one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Premier League, which one unfortunate journalist from the Guardian missed as they had not bothered to turn up for a press conference to unveil the club’s new manager.
The arrival of the Special One
By Jason Burt, Chief Football Correspondent
Anyone who attended Jose Mourinho’s first press conference when he arrived in England as the Chelsea manager in 2004 will never forget it. “I am a Special One,” Mourinho said in response to a question in which he felt his credibility for the job was being questioned (funny that, ask a question and you might get an interesting answer).
That press conference at Stamford Bridge helped inform everything we subsequently knew and found out about Mourinho and was hugely informative. It also convinced anyone in the room – if there were any doubts – that he was the real deal and would leave an indelible mark on English football.
Mourinho explained his ambition, the way he works and his personality. “We have top players and sorry if I’m arrogant, we have a top manager,” he said and the world took notice with Sir Alex Ferguson referring to him as “a cheeky young sod”.
Mourinho was just that. But, for those interested, he also went deep into his methodology, how he worked with players and what he expected from him. I kick myself that I no longer have a transcript from that day as the briefings he also carried out with newspapers was also gold dust.
Benitez sounds alarm on Gillett and Hicks
By Chris Bascombe
In the early hours of May 24, 2007, Rafa Benitez wandered the grounds of Liverpool’s Champions League final hotel in Athens.
His side had just been beaten 2-1 by AC Milan and despite completing his post-match duties at the stadium, Benitez was planning for another press conference at the hotel before the team’s flight back to Merseyside.
He spent the evening with his closest confidantes studiously considering what to say as, despite the recent takeover by George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, Benitez already suspected the new owners were charlatans who were big on promises but short on details and action.
What followed in front of the assembled media was Liverpool’s Battle of Bull Run, the starting pistol for the Anfield civil war of 2007-2010.
“I want things to be done,” said Benitez. “If we don’t change things right now and understand how crucial this moment is, we will waste another one or two months.
“They say they will back me. I’m tired of talking, talking. We talk and talk but we never finish.”
The dynamite remarks blew apart the club hierarchy’s PR drive that the Americans would usher in the prolonged period of stability that Liverpool needed to challenge Manchester United and Chelsea. The money Hicks and Gillett subsequently invested in the team arrived courtesy of risky, high interest loans which they defaulted on three years later.
Benitez delivered what all the best press conferences do – a damn good and important news story.
Sandpaper cheats caught ‘lying’
By the end of the third day of Australia’s Test match against South Africa in Cape Town in March 2018, video footage of Cameron Bancroft rubbing something on the ball to change its surface had circulated worldwide. This was big, and Cricket Australia felt they had no choice but to force Bancroft and captain Steve Smith to front up at the close-of-play press conference.
Bancroft admitted rubbing the ball with a foreign object, but he said it was a piece of yellow sticky tape covered in dirt granules. It was not true – the object was sandpaper – but his words were now a matter of public record. Later, Bancroft would admit: “I lied. I lied about the sandpaper. I panicked in that situation and I’m very sorry. I feel like I’ve let everyone down in Australia.” It was the perfect example of a press conference being used to hold people to account for wrongdoing. They cheated, they then lied about cheating, and it was all in public.
Boxing’s greatest brawl
By Gareth A Davies, Boxing Correspondent
I have seen all manner of drama at boxing press conferences. In this sport they are always part of the hype and the sell and the promotion. Some are staged, some are real. But fights are always cranked up by enmity. It is part of the human condition: shout “fight” and the masses will rubber neck.
Things that I have witnessed range from threatening to put someone in a body bag – Deontay Wilder – to huge taunts and fights and brawls, microphones being thrown to the slit throat signal and so on.
Things that are much less accepted in other sports but this is about a fight, not a game to be played. There are too many incidents to list but the brawl between Dereck Chisora and David Haye at the post-fight press conference in 2012 – Chisora had just been 12 rounds with Vitali Klitschko – in Munich stands out. Chisora got out of his chair on the dais to shut Haye up at the back of the room and a brawl ensued between the two teams. Huge hatred followed. They settled their differences at the Boleyn Ground six months later, separated by a steel fence during the week’s build up. The irony? Haye is now Chisora’s manager.
It’s all theatre because when you fight each other more times than not it ends in mutual respect.
‘Disgraceful conduct’: Mo’s extraordinary rant at Haile Gebrselassie
By Ben Bloom, Athletics Correspondent
The drama of the pre-London Marathon 2019 press conference did not even take place during the usual media questioning, but after the event was meant to have concluded. Totally unprompted, Mo Farah asked for the microphone again and launched an attack on Haile Gebrselassie, claiming he had been the victim of a burglary at the Ethiopian track legend’s hotel. Within hours, Gebrselassie had hit back and accused Farah of assaulting another athlete, blackmail and engaging in “disgraceful conduct” at the hotel. It was an unsavoury but fascinating spat between two of athletics’ biggest names, which would never have been public knowledge had Farah not mouthed off to the media before racing.
Tennis stars’ remarkable broadside
By Simon Briggs, Tennis correspondent
The Lawn Tennis Association still refer to November 30, 2015 as “Black Monday”. That was the morning after one of the Murray brothers’ greatest achievements: winning the Davis Cup for Great Britain for the first time in 79 years. Reporters filed into the Ghent Marriott expecting celebrations and back-slapping. Instead, Andy Murray called out the LTA for the absence of any promising juniors and their failure to build on his legacy. Then everyone piled in: Andy’s brother Jamie, Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, even young Kyle Edmund – the baby of the team. Five-and-a-half years on, the LTA have yet to supply a cogent response.
Spying All Blacks
Eddie Jones got tongues wagging in Tokyo ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final when he accused someone of watching England’s training session. “There was definitely someone in the apartment block filming but it might have been a Japanese fan,” Jones said in the confines of Japan’s Disneyland Resort. “I don’t care mate. We have got someone there [watching New Zealand training] now.”
England ended the week by delivering their greatest performance of the Jones era to knock out the reigning champions, though Jones would later describe in his autobiography that he, together with his advisor David Pembury, had drawn up a plan to pile the pressure on New Zealand throughout the week through his words in the media.
Whether the spy allegations were a fantasy on a Mickey Mouse level remains a mystery, though Jones will long be remembered for triggering roars of laughter by labelling the Kiwi press pack as “fans with keyboards”.
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