Liverpool have been given permission to install a privacy screen at their training ground in order to stop confidential team details leaking out before matches.
The city council's planning committee approved the application at a meeting on Tuesday. It means the club will be able to install a 4.5 metre high movable screen at their Melwood training base, which is in the West Derby area of the city.
Liverpool made the application to put up the screen in January, after a series of leaks on social media sites about their tactics. Fans were getting the information by using ladders to peer over the walls around Melwood, which are around 2.5 metres high, or by standing on top of bins taken from nearby houses.
Liverpool FC get planning permission for Melwood screen - full story http://t.co/IlZiUhoK48 #LFC pic.twitter.com/pjFEAOUWza
- Liverpool FC News (@LivEchoLFC) April 21, 2015
The club could not build higher walls because the training ground is surrounded by housing, and so went for a screen that consists of a curtain on a track, held up by supporting posts.
A Liverpool spokesman told the meeting that the club have had problems with people filming their training sessions. He said: "The modern game of football is a tactical sport. The screen can be closed around the training pitch during tactical training sessions."
The spokesman added that the screen would remain open most of the time in order to allow grass growth and to reduce the impact on residents.
However, a resident at the meeting argued against the proposal, suggesting that rather than putting up a screen, the club should be giving fans a place from which they could watch training.
Thomas Jones said that, because supporters do not have an area at Melwood from which to observe, it was causing problems for those living nearby. He also claimed that residents were having to call Liverpool City Council to get new bins to replace those taken by supporters to stand on.
Jones added that the club were failing to meet a demand from fans, saying that a coach of Japanese tourists had recently turned up at Melwood asking where they could watch training, only to be told that there was nowhere for them to do so.
Planning officer John Hayes told the meeting that he sympathised with residents, but added: "Unfortunately the overall management of this facility is not something being considered this morning."
A council spokesman said that it would raise the residents' concerns with the club.