False transfer rumours?
Posted by DavidM in Football blogs | 18 February 2006
We all know rumours abound about football player transfers and we're used to most of them never coming to anything. But no-one likes it when sites start false rumours purely to generate traffic.
ArsenalMuse turned detective on a story about Thierry Henry learning Catalan prior to a move to Spain, and came to the conclusion that it is a complete fabrication designed to drive hits.
He read the rumour on ArsedUp which cited FCBarcelonaBlog as the source. On checking the ownership of both sites (you can do this at Network Solutions) he found they were both owned by the same company and came to the conclusion that it's a scam.
With some further digging (thanks Ian) we've found that both sites are ultimately owned by Tincture Ltd, based in Nassau, Bahamas. The contact link for both goes to press@bigblogmedia.com and Jason McDowell is the contact for both sites.
However, it's not as clear cut as you might think. Big Blog Media describes itself as "a large blog network and blog directory of blogs containing articles and reviews aimed at a range of specific interests from Culinary Arts to Celebrity Gossip" - so while it owns both sites it may be that they are written by different bloggers.
Basically, it's like the Newcastle writer here on Real Life News referring to a story on the Bundesliga pages.
So maybe not a scam. But is it true? I guess we'll find out in the summer transfer window.
Comments
Dave, as you quite rightly point out, Big Blog Media is the Blog Network, I am the Arsenal blogger, and of course Sven and Carmen have Barcelona blog on their club, like any fans their is the usual banter, and of course they pointed out what they wrote, I only posted the Catalan story after the first story they blogged about was picked up from Sky Sports. They will and do stick by the story, they are very close to officials of the club, and insist a deal is done. As a gooner I hope its nothing more than Barcelona trying anything to get our man, but ss you say, we will know in the summer, but the way he played at Blackburn i figure he is halfway there !. Arsenal Muse should figure out what a blog network is about before he calls it a scam for traffic.