Press conference: how we verify what was actually said

Press conferences are the most-quoted and the most-misquoted source in sport. The temptation to paraphrase a coach's answer into a cleaner sentence is constant, and the discipline to keep the original wording is the difference between reporting and invention.

How we read a press conference

• We work from the official transcript where the club provides one, and from the verified recording where it does not.
• We quote the original wording, and we attribute the paraphrase to the coach only when the meaning is unambiguous.
• We do not invent context, and we do not assume a question that was not asked.
• We do not paraphrase a non-answer into a quote, and we do not paraphrase a joke into a policy.

What we leave out

• The follow-up question that did not receive an answer.
• The joke or the aside that was clearly not intended as policy.
• The answer that was contradicted by the verified reporting that came later.
• The translation drift that comes with the official transcript in a second language.

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