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The impact of Twitter on football

The impact of Twitter on football


The impact of Twitter on football

Twitter has taken the world by storm, with an estimated 250,000,000 users all over the world and a reported 140,000,000 tweets per day; it has become the most easy to use and quick social media platform for people to communicate with their friends and families from anywhere in the world.

However, Twitter is now taking the Premier League by storm. Players have been resorting to the unconventional methods of "Tweeting" to communicate with various corners of the press and with their fans. This has landed many players in hot water.

According to tweetmygoal.com owner Alex Goodchild, "Twitter is a great way for players to communicate with not only their fans but with their clubs. We are in an age when the press takes so much out of context; so Twitter has become a useful place for players to speak the truth.

"150 Premier League players are already on Twitter. We expect that even more will be signing up in the next year.

"Even more interestingly, Twitter is more popular in Spain where around 50 percent of La Liga players have a Twitter account."

Tweetmygoal.com currently tracks about 320 soccer players from Europe and already reaches an audience of 1000 visitors a day, despite the page only being launched one month ago. Goodchild credits this to a huge interest in the private lives of soccer players: "Most fans cannot even watch a soccer match, let alone communicate with the players. Twitter has changed those boundaries."

Scandals

However, many players have found themselves in hot water after speaking their mind in Twitter. Most notably, Carlton Cole landed himself in trouble for alleged "racist comments" on Twitter about the Ghana national football team. Cole famously tweeted: "Immigration has surrounded the Wembley premises!"

It doesn't just stop there. Jose Enrique hit out at Newcastle's transfer policy on Twitter. "Jose was wrong to put those comments up and I told him," said Alan Pardew, the Newcastle boss.

More recently, Jose Barton has found himself tweeting on an almost daily basis regarding the situation at Newcastle. It is understood that many at the club are growing frustrated with his outspoken comments on the microblogging site.

Even more famous, is Ryan Giggs' alleged affair with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas earlier in the year. Ironically, Imogen too is a member of Twitter and using the social media site on an almost daily basis.

Manager bans

Meanwhile, Mick Mccarthy has also endured the wrath of Twitter. Last year, he claimed that the site cost him a transfer deal after one of his players released some private information on the site.

Mccarthy quipped: “Players are going to get themselves into trouble over Twitter, I can tell. I can’t ban it and I’m not going to try.

“But they have to be careful what they say. If they put a team selection up, which I’m sure some disgruntled idiot will at some stage, they will be in trouble for it.

“We are in the process of educating them, having a media law firm come in and speak to the players about it.”

Even Sir Alex Ferguson hinted at a Twitter ban recently: "I don't understand it to be honest with you," he said.

"I don't know why anybody can be bothered with that kind of stuff. How do you find the time to do that? There are a million things you can do in your life without that."

Public battles

British journalist Piers Morgan has also been enjoying his time on Twitter. There have been some hilarious exchanges with Man Utd trio Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen.

Morgan, a massive Arsenal fan, has used Twitter to laugh at Man Utd's misfortunes after Barcelona won the Champions League trophy at Wembley last year, wrestling the title from the grasp of Man Utd.

On an almost daily basis, Morgan uses Twitter to laugh at Michael Owen's bench warming situation at Old Trafford.

Whatever the future for Twitter and its use by Premier League footballers, it is sure to be an interesting time as clubs decide whether or not to ban the social media platform.

Link:

Tweetmygoal.com