Football's Obsession With Twitter

New Post - The Footballing Obsession of Twitter
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As the concept of networking grows, so does social media. Global brands such as Twitter and Facebook have grown in such large proportions such that Facebook floated on the stock exchange lastweekend at a valuation larger than Walt Disney and Amazon. With social networking ever-growing, so has its accessibility – even reaching out to the most media-friendly football players.

This is where the problem starts. Twitter and Facebook are great to keep in touch with friends and such, and even for celebrities and sportsmen to be more accessible for their fans. And if used in the right manner its great. But when its not, well that leads to a whole host of issues.

Let’s take one main culprit for example – Joey Barton. The QPR captain has never been shy to outlay his opinion, on or off the pitch. And at numerous times has got him in trouble. His recent implosion at the Etihad Stadium coupled with his rant at Alan Shearer(how dare he) have led fellow tweeter’s heckling him with abuse. Louis Saha, Spurs’ on-loan striker has recently been in hot water with his own fans after congratulating Chelsea’s Champions League win – a victory that prevents Spurs from participating in next years competition.

Racial abuse is also highlighted on social networking sites. Danny Simpson was recently abused by fellow tweeter’s calling him the ‘N’ word, a theme that has seen other footballers face similar abuse.

I know certain manager’s have it as a club policy such that social media outlets are banned within the club. I tend to agree with this rather vigilant stance, as one slip-up is picked up by the tabloids to the point that Twitter has become a vulture’s feeding zone.

Why would a professional footballer put certain aspects of their personal life into the public eye? Even if the thoughts or comments may be harmless within their friend-circle, once it is in the public domain its a different ball-game. Of course there are many who use the social media platform’s to great effect, but they will always be running the risk of saying something deemed stupid by some readers. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we’ve seen many footballers leave twitter due to constant abuse of their opinions, or more often – because of recent performances.

I think it would genuinely help footballers if every club were to adopt a ‘no-social-networking’ rule. So, follow me on twitter @beautifulgame9.

Comments and views welcome.

 

If I was a manager at a club one of my first acts would be to ban every single player and coach from Twitter. There is just no need for it and as I said a while back, the idea was to bring players closer to the fans. At present its resulting in the opposite effect and has proved very damaging for some clubs. We've had racial abuse, players revealing injury news they shouldn't, spats between fans and players, homophobic comments and a multitude of other problems since it exploded.

I'll be honest here, I'm biased because I couldn't give two ****s what one of our players has on his toast in the morning. I'm really not interested in them other than a playing football for the club. Their private life should be their private life and they'd do well to realise the pitfalls of Twitter. They are all quick to complain about their lack of privacy but it sticks in the throat when they are revealing personal details of their life to all and sundry.

I would have an official club twitter which could showcase the stuff like charity days, training camps etc. That is getting in touch with fans.

Its a job at the end of the day and a certain degree of professionalism is neccessary. Its fine to hold certain opinions on topical news, other clubs, other players but revealing those views to the world cqn sometimes show their clubs in a bad light. Why should a business be suffering PR wise at the hands of its employees?

 

I don't think a blanket ban is required, players just need to be aware that they need to conduct themselves professionally just as they do in interviews, public appearances etc etc. At the end of the day Twitter is just another medium that they need to learn how to use properly, remembering that any tweets are public and recoverable, so throwaway comments don't exist.

 

Unfortunately though the players have already proven they are incapable of doing so depsite numerous warnings from their clubs. Every week without fail a footballer of some description puts something inappropriate on Twitter. How long do you continue trying educate them? One of the main issues is that footballers are not the brightest in general and therefore you'll never get it through their thick skulls. They rarely grow up until their late 20's because they don't have to. This results in behaviour and comments of ana unprofessional nature.

Aside from that I struggle to see what good is coming out of it. Its certainly not putting fans in touch with their heroes, so I'm uncertain what the actual benefit is. It may satisfy some fans curiosity about the real life of a footballer. Even then most of the top guys have their twitter written for them so its more a marketing tool for the players. Clubs would do well to control that for me.

 

For the most part I agree, but there are rare examples of intelligent footballers out there (no, not you Joey). I'm not on Twitter either so I can't give you any examples, but I think that kind of blanket censorship is harsh on those who could use it for the right reasons. Supposedly Cisse's are very positive.

Think I'm just disagreeing with you on everything these days, good job I can't be arsed to do the Danny Simpson topic again (see blog entry...)!

 

I agree with the lads above. Unfortunately its come to a point that despite how intelligent and bright an individual footballer is, one stupid comment will be seen by millions of people globally before it can be deleted. Why run the risk of that?

 

Aye but we can disagree without being arsey!! Clarke Carlisle is an exception to the thick footballers rule. If he is on twitter you'd probably get some sense. Joey's portrayal of himself is something else. I wonder how he'll feel when he retires and looks back over his career and the chunks he's lost through his own stupidity. Daft thing is it could have been him and not Henderson on that plane if he'd kept his nose clean for the last 5 years. Silly boy.

 

I honestly believe that if he didn't have all the baggage and just concentrated on using his god given talent he wouldn't be on the plane in Jordan Henderson's place as a late call up, but rather Henderson would be on a plane to join up with Barton and the est of the England regulars.

 

Quite possibly. Self destructive doesn't do it service.

 

That does make the assumption that sans baggage Barton would still be playing as well as he did for Man City five years ago, because nothing since then has made me think 'England standard', even in a situation where two centre mids are crocked and Carrick doesn't want to play.

 

Thats the problem. We'll never know - and neither will he. He's a silly lad.

 

Michael Carrick asking not be considered unless he was playing an integral role does make me laugh. Not only is he a charlatan of the highest order with no right to be in a Manchester United xi, he is also a pompous little prick who thinks the national team should be running up his arsehole.

 

Agreed. The attitude completely stinks. "Because I'm about the 4th or 5th choice centre mid I don't want to be involved, so you'll have to take 6th choice instead". The way things are going he could have been starting in the Euros.

Edit: My word, I've agreed with you!

 

The way things are going I think I've got a chance!

 

Disagree with that. He was always going to be playing against Gerrard and Lampard for a space as a creative central midfielder in the first team. He's not anywhere close to them technically or talent wise even without all his baggage.

The funny thing it doesn't matter on the England front that he hasn't kept his nose clean, because he was never going to be a regular anyway, he was born in the wrong era to get into the team as the central midfield is as strong in the creative department as its ever been for England.