Journalists cover Sheffield Wednesday v Norwich at Hillsborough
My experience in the press box of an English football club – Sheffield Wednesday FC
by Elizaveta Gulina
The World Cup is coming to my country this summer. Journalists from across the planet will see the inside of a Russian Stadium and the inside of a Russian press box.
Before I return to that to cover the World Cup for Prost Amerika from Moscow and St Petersburg, I wanted to take a look at how the English cover football. My adopted home town club Sheffield Wednesday FC were kind enough to invite me in to have a look.
Wednesday’s opponents on the 6th of May, 2018 were Norwich City, a derby of birds if you will where the Owls battled the Canaries. I know, I should have tweeted the game!
While approaching Hillsborough, I could only vaguely imagine what to expect from the press box. The only thing I knew was that I was a Russian, accredited to cover an English game, for an American site!
Hillsborough is an approachable place for working media. I easily found the reception area to collect my pass. To my surprise, I was not met by any media team representative as I expected, however, there were very easily available and friendly staff members who were kind enough to accompany me to the media seats.
My sister worked for Zenit FC in Saint Petersburg. As a comparison, I asked her who how this was organized in Russia. It turned out that it is not that easy to get to the stadium there and all media representatives could pick their passes up at the accreditation point that is located outside of the stadium and then go through the turnstiles. This is done for the security reason that allows the system to track those people who attend the stadium.
My pass had a seat number on it, so I started looking for my place. However, I soon realised that journalists could sit anywhere no matter what their accreditation showed.
Looking around I noticed that all the journalists were extremely busy working straight after the match started. It was clear that they were focused and wanted to produce a quality piece of work and did not want to be disturbed.
There were several types of journalists present: some worked on their laptops, others typing something in smartphones, and those doing live commentary of the game or podcasts. I noted that most of them were posting some tweets presumably on their personal twitter blogs covering the match.
Elizaveta with the EPL trophy at the Raise Your Game 18 Conference and with her pass which Wednesday ‘make easy to collect’ for visiting journalists
This was my first game at Sheffield Wednesday and it was no surprise that I initially felt slightly left out as it seemed that the people in the press box knew each other and occasionally chatted. However, that feeling didn’t last long as during the interval, the other journalists were very friendly and even offered me a cup of tea.
I also found out that I was not the only international representative as there was a journalist from Portugal. It was not difficult to ascertain why. Wednesday defender Frederico Venancio and forwards Lucas Joao and Marcos Matias are Portuguese. He was not to be disappointed. Joao started the match and Matias came on as a substitute. To his joy, Venancio scored in Wednesday’s 5-1 win. Norwich captain Ivo Pinto is also Portuguese.
I was not the only foreigner but what did strike me was that there were no other women in the press box except for myself. This surprised me as, having been in the UK for more than two years and working in the sport sector, I had seen that the British society was actively promoting women’s inclusion in football and in sports field in general. Certainly organisations like kicktitout.org do their bit with events like the Raise Your Game 18 Conference.
Is Russia any better? My sister affirmed that the media sector there at any give football game would usually included more than one woman.
I’ve been living in Sheffield so while watching the game I obviously supported the home team and internally cheered as the Owls’ goals rained in. However, I observed that most of the journalists were impartial to the game and portrayed no visible emotion. Traditional English sang-froid, or professionalism?
My curiosity and joy at my inaugural presence in an English press box was augmented by a great game and a fantastic atmosphere at the stadium. Not only it was the last Sheffield Wednesday game of the Championship in their 151st season but also the Owls ended it with a somewhat lopsided 5-1 victory with Kosovan Atdhe Nuhiu scoring a hat trick.
It was also the last game for Wednesday’s veteran skipper Glenn Loovens who waved goodbye to Hillsborough on Sunday as the 34 year-old left the Owls after four-and-a-half years. It all finished with the squad celebrating their victory and the end of the season by marching around the stadium and fans singing the Wednesday’s hymn.
Everything that happened that day was a unique experience for me that I will remember with fondness as I head to Russia for the World Cup.
Elizaveta (l) has been active in the International Paralympic Committee but will be reporting for Prost Amerika from Russia this summer
