In the week after the Van Bommel incident against Ajax, this outlet published the most scandalous headline: “Mark must intervene with Ruben.”

‘Mark van Bommel intervenes with Ruben after PSV went quiet’. It was really there. The followers of football sites and football news sites then actually immediately know which site it is. Of course Soccernews, which keeps readers in the majority of articles very much fooled and in fact swindles them by means of often nauseating—and moreover incorrect—titles and headlines. It became a week of unrest surrounding Ruben van Bommel, which he himself managed to park away both manually and forcefully.

Looking back at the week of Ruben van Bommel, many conclusions can be drawn. Also from a media-technical point of view. Soccernews 'pollutes' at least a part of Dutch football journalism, although many also think that it should not be allowed to carry that name. It is also precisely that part of nationwide football journalism that for good reason is not held in very high regard, but we’ll leave that aside. PSV Inside also belongs to that part of football journalism, but more on that in a moment. Honestly, that’s true...

The bizarre Soccernews doesn't seem to care about anything at all and publishes, almost every day, the most sensational headlines, where the veracity is not just a little far-fetched, but simply doesn't exist. This is daily fare for this medium, which, of course, couldn't stay away when it came to the Ruben van Bommel incident at the Johan Cruijff Arena.

Everyone had their say about the incident between Van Bommmel and Bouwman. In Goedemorgen Eredivisie on ESPN last Sunday, the PSV technical director, Earnie Stewart, was a guest. He said that Van Bommel, after De Topper, walked towards the Ajax dressing room to offer his apologies there. That set the ball rolling for a week full of opinions and analyses.

Hugo Borst wore the crown, while Borst in fact also serves as an example. What Borst calls out gives others a blank check to call out what they want to call out. “This boy loses himself. It’s an absurd short circuit; you really have to do something about it. This is not normal. He’s had such incidents on his record more than once,” said the columnist, who also took a firm swipe at Mark van Bommel.

But then Soccernews. The publication apparently found it necessary to drape a blanket of sensationalism over it for a little while more, which, for the aforementioned publication, is otherwise the most normal thing in the world. In the past, the editorial team of PSV Inside has already contacted the editorial team of Soccernews more than once—either the editor-in-chief. However, this contact was kept from happening through another member of the editorial staff. There simply was no need for contact and there was also no need for any explanation. That can be; after all, it isn’t mandatory to account for yourself in relation to the titles of articles.

Every medium, every journalist, every writer sometimes provokes resistance and irritation. We can therefore well imagine that readers, our readers as well as the readers who don’t check in every day, are irritated by PSV Inside, by the articles of PSV Inside, or by the way PSV Inside writes. Please let us know; then we can improve ourselves, but that aside.

What PSV Inside doesn’t do is mess around with titles that miss the mark. Clickbait is a recurring feature in virtually every outlet, including PSV Inside, but what Soccernews manages goes beyond all bounds. It’s even worse than British or German tabloids. With clickbait, readers are heavily challenged to read an article. As long as the truth is stated in this article, there’s no question of deliberately trying to fool the reader.

Soccernews often goes a step further and deceives readers by means of a loud and just as often incorrect title, giving a distorted picture of events. This is also the case with the title of the article about the Van Bommel incident in the Johan Cruijff Arena.

'Mark must intervene with Ruben van Bommel', Soccernews dared to use as the headline for the article. 'Intervention necessary? ‘Mark van Bommel and Bert van Marwijk’s role crucial’, Soccernews published in the article as a headline above a paragraph, and then went on to point to a statement by Kieft and Van der Gijp. Both titles are pure fabrications and totally not aimed at reality and truth because nobody has used these two headlines. Soccernews did, scandalous.

Van der Gijp found one more thing noteworthy, in a positive way. “You could tell that he was dealing with it after the match. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for example, didn’t. Zlatan was proud of it,” he concluded, laughing as he told his story. Agent Rob Jansen also joined in on the conversation. “The most important thing now is how Ruben handles it, including at PSV. His father Mark and Bert van Marwijk can play a big role in that.”