Reddit's r/soccer bans all content from journalist Fabrizio Romano

The ban will take effect in the coming days. See below for full explanation.

Prior to the World Cup, we consulted the community in a meta thread about several issues — one of which was the growing movement among many football fans (including r/soccer users) calling for a ban on content from journalist Fabrizio Romano.

This would follow the lead of several club subreddits that had already banned Romano.

Feedback at the time was mixed. We listened to both sides and ultimately settled on a compromise that sought to limit Romano content to exclusives only. We felt this would reduce his exposure and platforming on r/soccer, while still allowing genuinely valuable content to be posted.

Part of that decision acknowledged that many people on r/soccer use this platform for transfer news and care little about criticisms of Romano. This subreddit has always been a mix of a "core community" of long-standing users with a vested interest in the values and vision of r/soccer, and the at-times quieter majority who use r/soccer as a means to access the most relevant football content and discourse. We tried to cater to both.

However, since the opening of the transfer window this summer, our view as moderators has shifted further — and we have now decided on a complete ban on Romano.

(We also want to make clear that views were mixed among the moderators, with opinions on both sides — but ultimately, the majority were in favor of a ban.)

This decision responds to the ever-growing disquiet from the community, as evidenced by comments in Romano threads and elsewhere, toward his content. Other factors include that Romano himself appears to be falling deeper into questionable practices, making prior criticisms louder. Furthermore, as football media becomes more diverse and broader, the particular value Romano holds is diluted — there is little news that are true "Romano exclusives" these days, and what he does break is quickly picked up by other outlets.

As such, our conclusion:

Fabrizio Romano content represents little overall benefit to this community, and what benefit he does offer does not sufficiently address the downside of platforming him.

Further Context

To outline the argument further, for those unfamiliar with the discourse:

The Argument for a Ban

1. The moral aspect — Romano is recognized for platforming the rapist Mason Greenwood, and has monetized the deaths of Andre Silva and Diego Jota.

1. The ethics of journalism aspect — Romano has increasingly been accused (with validity) of siphoning off other journalists' content and passing it off as his own.

1. The quality and excessive spam aspect — Romano's content increasingly moves away from important exclusives and toward drip-feeding non-updates on transfer sagas that offer little original value. Instead, this amounts to spam and drowns out other transfer stories that are less clickbait-driven.

1. The shill aspect — Romano has close associations with many clubs and agents, meaning his content is manipulated with a vested interest in posting more about those with whom he has a monetary relationship.

The Argument Against a Ban

1. r/soccer would lose out on valuable content — As addressed above, there is no such thing as a true exclusive in football media these days. Breaking stories are quickly reported elsewhere, and the delay between a Romano exclusive and an alternative source is likely to have a significant impact. As noted, Romano has fewer exclusives now — his "Here We Go" posts are not what they once were.

1. Romano posts stories about leagues and clubs less covered by other journalists — This is true to a degree, but we do not believe it is enough of a caveat to outweigh the reasons to ban him.

1. It's a slippery slope... — It isn't. We have banned other outlets before on moral arguments, such as The Sun, and it has not led to us tumbling down a slippery slope. Moreover, we are in control of this — we are not beholden to ban other journalists based on precedent. As always, if individual cases are made to ban other sources or journalists, we will consider them.