Football Association will intervene after Telegraph journalist locked out of Joshua-Dubois fight

The Football Association will take action following the “flagrant” crackdown on free speech that saw Telegraph Sport’s Chief Sports Writer banned from Wembley for Anthony Joshua’s stunning defeat by Daniel Dubois.

Oliver Brown was denied entry to the national stadium for Saturday’s IBF heavyweight title fight two days after writing that a bout bankrolled by Saudi Arabia was an exercise in sportswashing.

The ban has since been branded “a flagrant breach of press freedom and free speech” by former FA chairman David Bernstein and a “slippery slope” by Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, the chair of parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport select committee.

Telegraph Sport has been told that the FA, which owns Wembley, had no involvement in the running of an event for which it hired out the venue and had no knowledge Brown had been denied entry.

But amid the prospect of the national stadium staging future fights bankrolled by one of the world’s most oppressive regimes, sources have confirmed those using it will now be forced to share with the FA any issues related to media accreditation in order for a resolution to be found.

Bernstein said: “The FA and Wembley Stadium need to examine future agreements with users of the stadium to ensure that press independence is upheld.”

In his own account of Saturday’s events, Brown recalled that fellow journalist Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post had in 2018 been killed and dismembered with a bone saw by operatives acting – in the view of US intelligence agencies – with the approval of the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Dinenage fears ‘slippery slope’

Dinenage said: “It’s a slippery slope if venues are denying entry to journalists on the basis of what they have written. I’m surprised at Wembley. I expected it to have more robust policies.”

Saturday’s bout in front of a record 96,000 crowd at the national stadium also saw the anthem of Saudi Arabia played before that of the UK, something Bernstein denounced as “adding insult to injury”, while Dinenage said: “I can see why it raised a few eyebrows.”

Bernstein said what happened at Wembley would compound ongoing concerns many held about the potential scale of Saudi influence on British sport.

That includes in relation to Government plans to introduce a Football Governance Bill that will impose an Independent Football Regulator (IFR) on the game.

Need for truly independent regulator highlighted

A Bill tabled by the last Conservative administration featured a controversial clause stating the regulator should have regard to the UK’s foreign and trade policy objectives, which would include its relationship with the likes of Saudi Arabia.

Bernstein said: “The huge influence of nation states in British sport, particularly football, is one of the reasons why a truly independent regulator for English football is needed.

“The Football Governance Bill tabled by the last Government contained a clause stating, ‘The IFR must have regard to the foreign and trade policy objectives of the Government’.

“This clause must be removed from the updated Bill to be presented by our new Government. If it is not, the fundamental need for the regulator to be independent will be exposed as a sham.”