Club's fan ban over internet leak

Team information has been posted on the internet following training

Fans have been banned from attending Norwich City football club's training sessions amid fears vital pre-match information is being leaked to rivals.

City said it will limit fans admittance to the Colney Training Centre after an "increase in citizen journalism".

In the run-up to City's last home game, team formations were posted on websites following training sessions.

Peter Grant, club manager, said in the days leading up to a game fans would be banned from the ground.

In a week which includes a mid-week feature, all training sessions would be closed to the public, if there are no mid-week fixtures, training sessions on Mondays and Tuesdays will be open to fans.

Mobile phone footage

"We still very much want Colney to be a friendly and open place where fans can visit and watch training sessions," Mr Grant said.

"Unfortunately though there are some days when information from the training ground is more sensitive - like the day or two before a game when we're starting to look at formations."

The club said sensitive information, gained often with mobile phone pictures and video footage, had appeared on websites.

Joe Ferrari, of the club, told BBC News: "The manager, prior to last weekend's match against Preston, was very disappointed to see our full line-up and personnel appear on a website.

"Last season we had a very unfortunate serious injury to a key player at the time, Robert Earnshaw, and before the manager had got back off the training pitch from looking after the player, and got back to his desk, it was already all over websites."