Neville hits out at journalists

Speaking on 'Sky Sports' programme 'Sunday Supplement', Gary Neville spoke of two occasions when he thought journalists overstepped the mark while he was working as assistant manager to Roy Hodgson with England.

"The only two occasions I had an issue with was the 'Moldova leg over' incident, which was a wonderful headline," Neville said.

"The journalists were invited into the team hotel, there is an element of privilege there as well as privacy.

"One of the players had a female representative of his agency in the hotel and yet that was interpreted that the players were having women into the hotel.

"That was a real issue of principle," he added. "When you're invited into the team hotel you should not do that. One, check your story, and two, it was out of order. We went and got the video tapes and actually proved it was a female representative of his agency that went and met a player in the public lounge of the hotel.

"The second occasion which I had more of a problem with was the idea that in the 2014 World Cup the press were taking it in turns to spy on the England training camp before releasing our tactics in the following day's newspaper.

"We actually caught the journalists doing it, we banned them for two days, and then everyone defended them stoically.

"How can you as journalists think it is right on private training sessions to actually snoop, watch and then reveal tactics and team selections to the whole world?

"That was wrong, fundamentally wrong. It's a betrayal".