Football: Times in Dream League story u-turn

Times had initially launched a spirited defence of its story that Qatar was to launch a ‘Dream Football League’.

LONDON: Britain’s Times newspaper has published a full climbdown following an internal investigation of the ‘Qatar Dream League’ story it ran last week, an episode the paper yesterday described as a ‘journalistic nightmare’.

In a column headlined ‘When we are wrong, we will hold our hands up. It’s the right thing to do’, the newspaper’s Football Editor Tony Evans said it had appeared increasingly clear that the newspaper had been duped, and that their checks had not been stringent enough in the rush to publication.

The Times had initially launched a spirited defence of its March 13 story that Qatar was to launch a ‘Dream Football League’ even though a French website said the scoop was based on its own spoof.

The Qatar Football Association swiftly distanced itself from the story, saying they had no involvement and had heard nothing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2013.