BBC Look East has been banned from normal editorial access to Norwich City FC because of a long-running dispute - and the club has now posted a statement on its website to clarify the situation.
The club statement states that Look East has been restricted in its access to the club since March 14, when it says the BBC regional football programme Late Kick Off broadcast a factually inaccurate story regarding an alleged multi-million pound transfer the club was, according to them, about to complete with Peterborough United for their then striker Craig Mackail-Smith.
The club states: 'Not only was the story unhelpful to Norwich City and inaccurate, but at no stage were the club contacted to seek either verification of the story or given the basic courtesy of an opportunity to comment.
'The handling of this factually incorrect story led to the decision being made to withhold non-contractual access to BBC East and Late Kick Off, until we could discuss the matter with them and obtain from them a satisfactory understanding as to how the story came to be broadcast.'
The club said that the broadcaster could regain access by making a 'simple phone call', but a BBC spokesman said yesterday that it was standing by its story.
The BBC spokesman said: 'We note the comment from NCFC. We stand by our story.'
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