Most fans have at some point believed the national newspaper they read is the unofficial mouthpiece of a rival club.
But thankfully in this country that’s not true. Newspapers certainly push stories about teams with the most followers as, by definition, those stories will attract the biggest audience. But no national paper would survive if they nailed their colours every day to the mast of one team.
It’s not the same in Spain, where national sports daily Marca is widely viewed as an in-house publication for Real Madrid. That’s why Gareth Bale was labelled a parasite in its pages for supposedly playing only for Wales not Real, and that’s why his response was to turn it back on the Madrid-based paper by claiming everyone knows who the real parasite is.
