By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing… kill yourself.

I and my fellow Unfortunate, Lanterne Rouge, have spoken several times about our hope that new club blogs will continue to pop up over the next few years. As the platforms become more foolproof and broadband access continues to become de rigeuer, the rise of fan-generated content is inevitable, and the failure of Rivals and a few of its pretenders can only give us fans more impetus to share our views outside of the authorized channels.

It’s with regret, then, that you see the ruling powers flexing their dubious authority in the name of that fluffy term: intellectual property. WSC has covered this subject in the past, but Viva Rovers, one of the best club blogs on the web in my eyes, was last week the victim of that insidious body, Football DataCo. Going by the slogan ‘Marketing UK Football Data to the World’, this deplorable outfit, in cahoots with the game’s governing bodies, forced WordPress to freeze the blog’s account on the basis that the site carried a few photos of match action and, most recently, shots of the crowd itself. The blogger fought back and, while not exactly successful, his account of the exchanges between himself and our league’s marketers, is well worth a read.

Lloyd

is co-editor of The Two Unfortunates. He's 31, supports Plymouth Argyle and takes a particular interest in the fortunes of those Football League clubs west of Bristol. He tweets @lloydlangman.