Football leagues and media resolve row in time for kick-off
England's professional football leagues and the media reached a last-minute agreement at the weekend to end their dispute over the way journalists can cover matches.
The row over how quickly text and pictures can appear online had already affected the first weekend of the Championship season and threatened to disrupt coverage of the opening Premier League fixtures on Saturday.
Under the new deal, match reporters will be able to provide live updates from games online, save for a delay of a few minutes.
The News Media Coalition, which negotiated on behalf of publishers, said: "We are delighted to have reached agreement with the leagues and look forward to providing fans with the best possible journalistic coverage of the game: match analysis, superb photography, interaction with top journalists and the real stories behind the play.
"Friday's agreement will put news-gatherers back in the press boxes at football grounds following a week in which a dispute with the football authorities over accreditation terms and conditions saw the media unable to attend matches.
"The previous agreement, signed in in 2004, was perceived as placing unreasonably restrictive constraints on how news organisations could use and distribute their copyright football content at home and abroad.
"The NMC, an industry body representing national and international publishers and news agencies said it looked forward to working more closely with football leagues and said it expected the agreed operational changes to make a significant improvement to the ability of both its membership and other news organisations to report on the world's most popular sport."