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For many decades, the relationship between sport and media was characterised by the main sports communication studies as “symbiotic” (McChesney, 1989) or “win-win situation” (Birkner and Nölleke, 2016). But the “digital (media) revolution” (Bradshow and Minogue, 2019; Pedersen, 2014) changed the conditions significantly. The development of new media and the opportunity to create own content and control more effectively the communication reinforced the position of sports organisations and simultaneously weakened the role of media. Sherwood, Nicholson and Marjoribanks (2016) constate that the relationship is “irrevocably altered”. Grimmer (2017) summarised that the traditional media lost access to their previous contacts and the information exclusivity. The situation became worse during the pandemic of COVID-19. This study deals with the situation in the Czech Republic and focuses on the journalistic work during the matches of the soccer league. The paper describes the restrictions applied after the re-start of the competition; for example, the clubs stopped the direct communication between the sports reporters and their players in the mixed zones. They replaced the interviews conducted by journalists with short spots created and distributed by their platforms. The research presents the opinions of sports journalists from in-depth interviews (Creswell, 2014); the sample includes the representatives of printed newspapers, online media, radio stations and national press agency. The respondents pointed out that sometimes they could not ask their questions; they become more dependent on the club, which led to some ethical aspects too; the new conditions also change the motivation to cover the games in the field.
