Wow.
I'm genuinely gobsmacked at this.
Considering the criticism and condemnation that united justifiably received for their failure to handle this properly and send out a clear message on the whole affair... the BBC now deserve equal criticism and condemnation for doing this.
I'm going to send a complaint asking what justification they've possibly got for doing this.
This is the response to my escalated complaint about Stone’s USA jolly, as a fan boy, watching his heroes play in half empty stadia.
Like the rest of the BBC, the Sport website and app is committed to providing value to licence fee payers.
During the football pre-season coverage we didn’t only have reporters following Manchester United. We had reporters in the USA with Chelsea, Manchester United, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Brighton and Wrexham.
Simon Stone covered four of these teams, with Alex Howell covering the rest.
Despite not having reporters present with all Premier League teams we still provided extensive updates – numerous each day – on every Premier League team. For example, Simon himself posted updates about Man City’s transfer news and the club’s friendly against Atletico Madrid.
We also published a full match report on City’s win on 23 July against Yokohama F Marinos as stated previously.
We hope to have assured you that we will continue to provide detailed and wide-ranging reporting and analysis of football across the Premier League and indeed across the lower divisions and internationals.
Thank you again for your feedback, which has been shared with the Sport Website team.