How Twitter changed the rules

Its good to see refs being defended with a big statement, but I think it was wrong to be resulting in a heavity fine for a silly tweet for Ryan. Ive seen managers get away with so much more while talking into a camera!

We need more consistent handling while defending refs. As for Twitter it is becoming a modern game, where players are celebs. Traditionals will not like it, but football is global and theres many fans who want to know what supermarket Rio went too for breakfast shopping.

FA acting like big brother here.
Babel has a right to say what he thinks.
It is the ref that should be fined by screwing up a big game with a
bad decision.

"Sportspeople are programmed to say certain things," adds Peter Searles, a follower of cricketers, swimmers and Southend footballers, "but on Twitter they've got free rein to say what they want. It's their own views rather than what someone's told them to say to a man with a microphone."

And there you have it. Sportspeople with free rein to share their tedious lives in their own tedious vocabulary. I don't want to know what TV programmes footballers watch, I'm only interested in seeing how they justify their over inflated wages on a football pitch.

As a Liverpool fan I feel that I should be defending Babel, but I wish he put as much effort into his playing as he did with his photoshop tool.

Am I really going to get too upset about a footballer being fined £10,000 for being a bit of a prat? Probably not.

i dont have twitter, but i do usually find out what banter graeme swann and jimmy anderson are having on it! I think its good to see that they are having a laugh whilst doing what they love, rather than being serious and mundane like many other sports people!

@1... 'heavily fined'

10,000?

Heavily fined?

To a member of the public yes but that amount of money is like a couple of ten pence pieces in our pocket for them.

Babel was having a bit of a dig at a ref. As long as he and others aren't making offensive comments or making statements which could provoke a riot, then there shouldn't be a problem - it's just freedom of speech.

As for educating players regarding Twitter, what a nonsense - they just need a bit of common sense, and it they can't show that then the club should ban the player from Twitter.

https://footballfutbolfitba.wordpress.com/

It's a SKANK thing to do by the F.A.!! But, not like he cannot afford that fine.. it's under a weeks wages to him! Anyway, if somebody did that in their workplace they'd be fired probably..! So unlucky mate.. with BIG wages, come BIG fines ern'it.!.

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A good post, Ben.

Tweeters come in all shapes and sizes, it's up to others to decide whether they'll become "followers" or not. It's soon obvious which celebs tweet via professional marketing companies and which are putting at least something of themselves into it.

Sadly I am afraid, many football players seem to lack this 'common sense' people have been talking about. After some particularly poor performances for Bristol Rovers this season one well known defender thought it appropriate to offer any fans questioning his commitment out for a fight in the club car park after the next game via Twitter!

I think its a disgrace that footballers and even managers cant speak out about referee's or they get a fine or banned from touchline ,if the referees themselves havent got the guts to comeout for a 5min interview after the game & give their opinion on any decisions made, why cant players and managers do it for them, but the FA have to look further into this because it is a part of the game and like others have said its freedom of speech being taking from these professionals

I think social network sites like Twitter are only good for football. They allow, for bad or worse, players to say what they actually mean, to be as they are. Listen to any post-match interview and it's always the same tosh, talking a lot without actually saying anything whatsoever. And as mentioned the media always twist the words that people say in interviews, you say one thing and they print something completely different so no doubt many players are wondering what's the point of talking to them. This isn't a problem on twitter.

And that photo of Woods is a perfect example of why I can't blame any footballer who rather stays at his mansion with his WAG than comes outside where he has to fear for his life in the middle of a riot.

Twitter is in the public domain. When you twitter things about a ref you will be dealt with the same as you would in an interview. In some ways its better because you haven't been misquoted. In that sense Babel was right to be hauled up. These players are very well paid and should be coached in what they can and cannot tweet and should be expected to hold to that constraint.

It is ridiculous. It's good to see these guys are human and enjoy a bit of fun and banter, its pathetic of the FA to charge him. What happened to people being able to express themselves? Its fine for these guys to joke around, we, as the public, appreciate it and find it humorous. It doesn't matter if people (ie, Howard Webb and the FA) disagree, its his own opinion and he's joking.
Its pathetic how PC the FA has become, as has everything.

Poor from the FA..That fine will definitely have hurt him..not! It was a pathetic act from Babel and the FA should have made an example of him for bringing the game into disrepute and for smearing the integrity of a referee who many would argue got both decisions RIGHT!

Disgusting.... whatever happened to freedom of speech and lets be fair, he only said what we were all thinking, It was never a penalty, if Gerrard deserved to go, and he did, then so did Rafael for the same sort of challenge just moments before. once again the curse of the dodgy refereeing at Old Trafford raises its ugly head, and as for Man United.. win at all costs, even if it means blatant cheating.... so shame on you F.A and Mr. Webb and well done to Ryan Babel for standing up for what you belive in.....

I too got Roy Bentley's autograph.
I went to school near Chelsea's ground and we used to go and hang around outside at lunchtime and get the autographs of anyone who went in and out of the ground.
I got Johnny Haynes's (the David Beckham of his day, only better) as he WALKED into Stamford Bridge.
In those days you could also walk into Downing Street any time.

Twitter can also used be used to carefully craft a false manufactured image of yourself in much the same way that 'celebrities' do elsewhere.

So a funny if misguided photo costs ten grand, interested to see what the going rate is for screaming obscenities at a referee. Or have I misunderstood the concept of disrepute??

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Interesting piece. Funnily enough, I've just written my own: https://blackandwhiteandreadallover.blogspot.com/2011/01/tweet-nothings.html

The phenomenon fascinates me in the way it's subtly changing relations between footballers, clubs, the authorities, the media and fans - though, as a Newcastle fan who's trawled through Wayne Routledge's stream of gibberish and Nile Ranger's tweets about an overwhelming desire for hot wings, I can fully appreciate there's a danger of overstating Twitter's significance...

This is not about freedom of speech, but about a player breaching the rules of the body that governs his professional conduct.

There is a big difference between saying a referee made a mistake and suggesting that he was biassed.

You do have to question the sanity of the FA that within one hour of Babel posting the comment/photo, they were already set to launch an inquiry.

I much rather see them spend this time and effort into actually improving the sport in this country. I wonder how much Football Association money and time was wasted in dragging through the hoards of tweets to find something offensive.

The FA fined Babel for 'improper conduct'
Is a twitter post mocking a referee improper conduct?
Debatable.

What about the referee who screwed up a very important match with poor judgement ( it happens too much)
Do you think think he should be reprimanded?
Definitely.

As many other posters have said, FA money and resources better focused elsewhere. The clubs - all of whom like to present themselves as media savvy - should do more to advise players about possible pitfalls of posting on social networking sites.

The reason Twitter's so popular with footballers is that, like the text message, it's a crutch for the inarticulate, the egomaniacal and those with an attention span of seven seconds.

Nobody uses Twitter apart from gits.

Surprising then, that the BBC has been overly promoting it across its entire network for the last couple of years.

Almost like advertising.

The F.A. fined Babel £10,000.
A football association depended on the Premier League, when it comes to money, finds a silly way to get some money out of a football player.

The right way, I would say. Employ a dozen people, searching Twitter and every other communicational internet tool, while at match day observng with a telescope every single match. At £10,000 p.h. (as in per head), they will soon be financially stable.

Utterly ridiculous and I don't even support Liverpool - I'm a Manchester United fan.

Real sportsmen have a laugh with the fans, you tweet a rugby league player more often than not they will reply and have a laugh

Babel accused Howard Webb of being biased and a cheat and in my book that demands punishment,of course £10K is nothing to an overpaid EPL prima donna so really he has not been punished.

As far as Twitter itself goes so many footballers are getting into trouble because they lack the intelligence to moderate their posts and as such we will have a regular conveyor belt of sportsmen and especially footballers dropping themselves in it via cyberspace

Football_UK: With a sports media that will report an off-form Aldershot Town striker's tweets, I don't think any expense is necessary.

I'm sorry, last time I checked we lived in a democracy, not a dictatorship. Ryan is entitled to his opinions.

5. At 5:58pm on 17 Jan 2011, andy1005 wrote:
@1... 'heavily fined'

10,000?

Heavily fined?

To a member of the public yes but that amount of money is like a couple of ten pence pieces in our pocket for them.

I could not agree more..

1. What WERE his intentions..apart from suggesting that the referee was biased..impugning his integrity..reputation and future employment prospects.. actionable libel I would have thought..

2. £10,000 fine..disastrous to most of us normal people..but totally derisory in terms of his pay packet

3. I'm all in favour of 'free speech'..as long as it is fairmindedly accountable.. just imagine if Wenger or Ferguson has done this.. the storm of protest from many of the bloggers above would have been deafening and the F.A. would have gone ballistic

Surely is Babel is charged with improper conduct then so should the Aldershot player and QPR players for their tweets (all of which are offensive and not jokes - even if you don't find Babel's funny)?

The lack of consistency from the FA on this is pathetic - clearly one rule for big clubs and one for small clubs...

Who gets the 10G, that's what I want to know. And is this "fine" legal?

And what about the "crime"? If that's a crime then 90% of Internet users should be locked up.

@Ben "by sticking Webb in a Man U shirt he wasn't just accusing him of making a mistake, he was publicly accusing him of cheating."

1. He didn't stick him in the shirt, he just posted a mock up that was on Facebook within minutes of te match finishing.

2. I think it was accusing him of (possibly subconcious) bias or favouritism rather than cheating. It might be semantics but I think even the most ardent MU fan would admit he has given some soft decisions United's wasy over the last couple of years (v Spurs, v Arsenal)

If the FA REALLY wanted to make a point, they'd make Babel publicly clean the ref's boots at a local U16 game.

Then we'd know the FA aren't just thinking of their own Easter hampers first.

My favourite sporting tweet was earlier this year when an NFL player (Buffalo Bills receiver Stevie Johnson) used Twitter to blame God for dropping what would have been a game-winning catch! It's this kind of ill-judged comment, straight from the horse's mouth, which makes Twitter so entertaining... hopefully, it will take a while before it becomes sanitized, predictable and dull like TV interviews with athletes usually are.

As a lifelong Liverpool fan all I can say is the FA have really punished the club by not banning Babel for life !I sincerely hope he pursues his interest in technology by establishing a new career for himself as soon as possible.

£10k to Babel is not a fine. It's well worth it. What is £10k to him; a day, 2 days pay??

Where does the money go?? To charity?? Probs not. I would hate to think it went in to topping up the FA's expenses funds.

Babel should be able to say what he likes on or offline.

I thought it was the Crown (as in the State) who were the only entity that could impose a fine in the UK. If I was Babel I'd refuse to pay it and see them in Court....just for the hell of it.

John Sinnott wrote a better piece than this on the same subject just last week. Why another?

"The FA fined Babel for 'improper conduct'
Is a twitter post mocking a referee improper conduct?"

Yes. It is unprofessional.


"What about the referee who screwed up a very important match with poor judgement ( it happens too much)
Do you think think he should be reprimanded?"

That is a separate issue.

I think all of you should know that the picture that Ryan Babel posted up was made after Webb gave a penalty against Tottenham in that infamous Old Trafford clash which ended 5-2. I'm bemused that some of you have only just seen it.

On another matter, just with the referees it's funny how United players get away with tweeting about referees yet the rest of the world does not.

A great tweet from Ferdinand last October about how incompetant the referee was got no press coverage at all. Suprising? No, United are the establishment club, we all know that, hence why 4 United 'legends' have been given lifetime achievement awards by the BBC in the past decade, whilst notable legends of football such as Kenny Daglish, Sir Bobby, et al never were, despite doing more for the game than let's say Senor Beckham of LA.

Oh dear, a complete over reaction from the gin drinkers at the FA. I thought we had a right to free speech in this country? So what if a footballer made a comment about the ineptitude of a senior referee?
Ridiculous, the FA needs to look closer to home for problems in the game.....

A bunch of incompetants!!

21. At 7:29pm on 17 Jan 2011, benw wrote:

Interesting piece. Funnily enough, I've just written my own: https://blackandwhiteandreadallover.blogspot.com/2011/01/tweet-nothings.html

Wow. A few more & you'll have your own book! Can't believe I got all the way down to your Twitter link ;-).


@42: Yeah, the Crown/State & the Mob. In Sicily anyway.

"An irony for sports journalists is that while it has never been more difficult to pin down sport's biggest names and wring anything vaguely interesting from them, along comes Twitter..."
I think I hear the loud sound of a hammer hitting a nail on the head.

if making silly remarks and talking gibberish on twitter cost Ryan Babel 10k, then Sir Ian Holloway will be paying his fines off waaaaaayyyyy after im pushing up daisies.....

Whilst it was wrong for Babel to post the picture and his comments, he apologised soon afterwards and admitted he was wrong for his tweet. That should have been sufficient enough. There was really no need for the FA to get involved and issue such a pointless and overbearing fine. Its PC gone mad.

Am sure Howard Webb wouldn't have taken it too seriously, he's probably heard and seen worse in his day job, and Babel was just frustrated and not actually indicating he cheated. If that had been the case then the FA would have had a definite reason to act, but otherwise there was no reason to get involved.

As has been said, managers and players say worse into cameras every week to no sanction from the FA, whilst other players have made comments about refs viz twitter before Babel with no reaction. The FA are clearly trying to make an example against Babel.

Babel had one error in judgement, made a clear mistake and apologised, and has now been reidiculously fined. He did more than Webb, who also made a mistake that weekend, yet doesn't apologise and will feel no reaction to his errors, like most refs. I know they aren't allowed to give interviews, but i think this issue needs to be looked at, so that the fans, and clearly the players, are given a reason for decisions made. It would also be nice to see refs punished more clearly for their mistakes like players are. Most will still referee a big match the week after making a wrong decision. That's something the FA should look at.

Any ref will tell you, there's no problem saying he got something wrong.

But questioning his integrity and saying he's biased is completely out of order.

And other posters are right, I imagine Babel laughed himself silly in in Shaquille O'Neal style at the petty amount (to him) that he was fined

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NAmlj3tWx0

As for tweeting, seems to be an awful lot more trouble than it's worth. I'm far more interested in what sportspeople do, than what they say

Twitter seems to be making the news so often these days, mainly thanks to the controversial situations it has produced!

A good blog post! I wish I'd lived in the times where you'd see players down the pub or jogging the streets. They do seem almost untouchable now,

I recently wrote a blog (at https://inbedwithmaradona.com/faking-it/%29 about those who set up false accounts and who is benefiting from it.

#53 "Any ref will tell you, there's no problem saying he got something wrong".

Unfortunately they never seem able, or are allowed, to come out and say "Hey, I'm only a human being, not a robot and it does appear I got that one wrong...sorry....but I will make mistakes and can only give what I believe I saw at the time".

If they would then kudos to them.

I am all for protecting referees, particularly at amatuer level, and I don't like when a player or manager tries to blame referees for a result that happened because the manager and players made mistakes, but Refs don't always help themselves.

TWITTER ..as some may be aware (?) got its name/acronym from..

Tits Will Indicate Their Totally Excruciating Rubbish

..given their mindless self importance..as far as too many are concerned of course

My previous comment was moderated out by my use of the word TW ..AT..so I rephrased it..despite its loss of accuracy..

Stone the crows (is that ok?)..what about the eff word I see published so often..

Martin Johnson -- "Don't hold your breath." Legend. Once again he proves he's hewn from the right stuff.

Nice blog Ben. I'm still not going to follow you or anyone else on Twitter.

babel's picture was funny but when i first saw the story i thought that his comment was a push too far

While I think that footballers should be able to express their opinion, you can't go around essentially accusing referees of being cheats. Some have suggested clubs mediate the comments but it is a sad day when a grown man can't decide whether a comment is suitable or not. "I thought the ref got the big decisions wrong" - OK, "the ref is clearly favouring Man Utd" - not OK.

www.feeling-football.blogspot.com

What a sad world we live in when we have to have a need to tweet to strangers,it's the perfect medium for social missfits,ranters and pompous self opinionated oafs. I can't be bothered with twitter,facebook,you tube and the like,i'm enjoying life, i'm high on life so i don't need the comments of every fool and his dog,i just carry on with everyday living,get a life you bigots and tools.

I think that as long as sportsmen use it properly then it is very advantageous as it shows the public that they are real people. I think the amount of times that some sportsmen put into replying to fans is very commendable. Then again, use it wrongly and your breaking the governing body's rules..

https://jackbradshaw.blogspot.com/

As a man utd fan i must say that if the fa is to fine players for insulting referees they need to enforce it wholly. Im a big fan of Rooney but i think he sometimes holds no regard for the referees at all. Babel had no right to taint Webb's reputation like that but i think the fa will have to extend such sort of punishment to all other players to justify it. I doubt they will for some players though. I think Freedom of speech shouldnt be at the expense of someones right to be respected. Its always easy when you are other side of the banter.

thanks ben. i use a computer as a tool not as a social exercise,if i want to talk to someone i'll pick the phone up,i don't feel the need to bare my soul to all and sundry,probably because i'm getting on a bit and twittering is more of a younger persons thing.By the way i aint got a tv either or buy newspapers,Rupert Murdoch eat your heart out.

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Hi Ben, just wondering if you could give me your thoughts on something.

Recently I somehow found my way into the vip section of the Barmy Army and England team's afterparty for the ashes in Sydney (albeit dressed as a moose - you may have seen me on tv) where 4 or 5 of the players turned up and it highlighted to me just exactly how the English cricket team are definitely becoming closer with their fans. I'll give you the example of Billy Cooper having a chat on the balcony with Swann as if they were old friends and had been for years. Go back to your original first point about footballers not being seen anywhere near the 17:30 from Fulham Broadway and I can't help thinking that the boundary between players and fans, no matter what the sport or the popularity of the player does vastly depend on a) the social context of the sport and b)the fans. You wouldn't see RVP down the Red Lion after a game, and yet he's just as happy to tweet as Freddie Flintoff or Tim Bresnan, who you definitely could see in the pub after a game. If you ask me, footballers are becoming more and more physically detached from the outside (and some would say "real") world (money, great fame etc.) but more attached to the blogosphere and twittersphere, whilst it seems that in other major popular sports like rugby and cricket, the players are actually coming closer to those who appreicate their sporting contributions from a spectatorial point of view. Why is this? The obvious answer is safety, but can't help thinking that the over luxurious lifestyles that they're living is impacting more and more on the way they view their devoted fans.

"bigrossy1966 - I think it's a bit more complicated than that to be honest - you say people who post on Twitter are egomaniacal, but you're on here giving your opinion for everyone to see, so presumably you think you've got something interesting to say"

It's not that complicated really, Ben. This blog and its comments was something started by you, which others have been invited to discuss. So how can it be egomaniacal to do something you've been invited to do?

Tweeting on the other hand, is something that is done without invitation. Tweets are unsolicited and often, not requested but something that someone chooses to do off their own back without being invited to do so.

A subtle difference I know, but a difference all the same.

In other words, this blog is inviting people to share their opinions. Which means someone (in this case, you) has made it clear that they are interested in hearing the opinions of others. In that case, its not egomaniacal to offer an opinion.

When you tweet and give your opinion that way, you are just assuming that others want to know what you are thinking.

Twitter - a medium for people who don't have the balls to say something to someones face. What a sad bunch. You lot should grow some!

More free advertising for Twitter on the BBC. This product would have died long ago but for the constant stream of publicity from our supposedly independent national broadcaster. Isn't there something in your charter about this?

#50..."this blog, with its interviews with players, coaches, a psychologist and fans". Are the interviews with Martin Johnson, Haskell and Bresnan new though? I certainly saw that interview with MJ on the BBC last week

Horses for courses I think Ben. I was told off by a friend last year for not staying in touch and told to get myself on Facebook, which I duly did, and was duly recyberunited with my not always memorable past, some of it quite distant. It's increasingly evident to me that a lot of it wasn't your imagination and that many of your old friends/acquaintances don't change. They may need to tell you they've just been upstairs to read The Sun on the toilet before eventually coming back downstairs for an evening of Eastenders, Dancing on Ice, X Factor, Big Brother, etc, but this represents a side of English life I try to avoid, which I'm partly able to do, as I live abroad now.

Like you, I'm an egomaniac, in that I want to speak and be heard on particular issues, which very kindly the BBC allows me to do to a wide audience, but personally speaking, the 'bottom' line, excuse the pun, as far as sportsmen, politicians, actors/actresses, etc, goes is their performances in their professions, not in someone else's bathroom! I'm not interested in whose baked beans they eat, I'm interested in the game, social policy or movie plot.

THere are alot of perks to Twitter, mostly it is as you say a way to identify with our idols. However, as anyone who follows any Arsenal player will tell you, players such as Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fabregas and RVP have all run competitions via their twitter pages for fans to win signed shirts. Which is not something you would see without mediums such as twitter.

footballfutbolfitba wrote:

Babel was having a bit of a dig at a ref.
----------------------------------------
Not quite, he was insinuating that the referee was biased and a cheat and as such was bringing the game into disrepute.

£10,000 fine? it's loose change to him but probably about right, we have to remember he's only a little kid and will learn a bit of sense as he gets older.

It's interesting the amount of mainstream media attention twitter has been getting of late. It seems to me as though many written media outlets feel threatened by it's emergence.

For as long as i remember the British media have taken sporting (and other) figures comments, and twisted, used out of context, or edited in order to fit the agenda of the moment, and ultimately profit in some way.

Is it really a surprise that these people are taking the opportunity to get their intended message across without the sensasionalist 'spin' added in? Is it a surprise they don't wish to talk to certain journalists after the way their comments and views are misrepresented?

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

It is a sad day when a childish joke which deserved a reprimand receives a fine of £10000.
It is also rather ironic that in the largest showpiece of the game, the World Cup final the game was almost brought into disrepute and the federations of Holland and Spain were fined a mere £9080 and £6053 respectively for the behaviour of their players by FIFA.
Also when Emile Heskey was Ratially abused by the Croatian fans the federation of Croatia was fined £15000, again by FIFA.

Also it is a further statement of the weakness of the FA when a player who says something stupid gets fined for one comment. Yet the top manager in the Land, Sir Alex Ferguson weekly 'refuses' to talk to the BBC and is fined only £1000 per week and by his continued refusal is surely a prevelent offender and is snubbing the FA and their rules. Maybe they should be stronger here than actually detering someone for speaking.
I hope that footballers learn from the Babel incident and do not just clam up and refrain from sharing their comments in the future.

You're overanalysing...

Sportspeople have too much time spare time on their hands so twitter's just another thing to do after they've played a round of golf and checked their emails...

If you bother to read their 'tweets' 99% of the time it's just a tedious cliched comment 'we played well today' or 'I'm knackered after the match' or an attempt at a little joke (see Ryan Babel)

End of meaningful discussion

46 - I assume you mean Sir Bobby Robson? He won the lifetime award relatively recently (2006 ort 2007?) Beckham & Charlton clearly won it as much for their England achievements as their Manchester United ones. Nobody in their respective eras won as many caps. The fact they happened to also win a European cup apeice obviously helped. I agree Giggs winning the main award was a strange one but that one is voted for by the general public and there's more people out there who hate Manchester United than love them so it's hardly an example of establishment bias!

all this will go away very soon when a player is then assigned a Twitter monitor by the club who will make sure nothing interesting come out of their mouths. i for one am looking forward to tweets such as 'i know i scored a hat trick but the most important thing is that the team wins' or 'credit to the lads and the gaffer'

To all those saying that the fine is anti-freedom of speech, I suggest you tweet a similar picture/comment of your boss, colleague or someone you have a working relationship with and see how well it goes down wiyh your employers

Hi Ben
Good article, and is thought provoking about the merits of use of twitter by certain people. This does beg the question though of what is acceptable for footballers / celebs to say, if Babel would have written on Twitter that the ref got a couple of decisions wrong (as most managers constantly do on TV) would that have been ok ?
Seems that all Babel did was portray, rather than say what most people thought, and was fined for saying it.
But what's £10,000 pounds to a footballer now, a token fine, wonder what will happen to that money.
As a side line you wonder though how many of the followers of footballers / celebs are people in the media just waiting to pounce on any indiscrection that may happen.

The FA should have charged Babel long ago.

Not for anything he's done on twitter, but for impersonating a professional footballer and bringing the word "effort" into disrepute.

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Can anyone tell me why any player would want to do this crapola? Other than sanctimony of course. they have the best job in the world darn it. Bloody gen Y.


I've no doubt that the brilliant old amatuer Sir Haworth 'shinpads' McSowerbutt would be reaching straight for the Captain Morgan & ready rubbed, on hearing of this nonsense.

I LOATHE GEN Y, they need constant feedback, constant bloody attention, Hey Ryan, here's a tweet for you;

SCORE A GOAL YOU OVERPAID WALLY - is it a diversionary tactic do we think?

Does anyone on here think its good that people like Babel do this? There must be someone - I'm itching for a reasoned debate / arguement / scrap / punch up / riot / insurrection etc


Jimmy Melia, annoyed in Hove

@jonahmona

Actually yes, I think it is good.

Lets take the individual out of the equation and just go to the point that a footballer or in fact any 'celebrity' can post comments and their 'fans' / followers can read it and feel they are getting something from the celebrity then that is fine by me.
As the main blog says, it is not too long ago when celebrities such as footballers lived amongst us and chatted down the local. They can't do that anymore due to the press and their intrusions but in the evolving society, blogs / twitter / facebook etc are no more than a modern equivalent of going down the pub. They are after all classed as 'social networking' tools.
It is a good thing, though some people need to be educated and grown up on how they use it but isn't that the same for everyone. How many people have posted a comment, sent an email and then thought, oh bugger... that was rash of me, I shouldn't have said that... it can be taken out of context. It is so hard to express feelings or demeanour in words and quite often things are misconstrued.

Lou Macari etc....if it aint done during work hours, and you work for a large enough company, they simply cannot prove it Sir. Trust me, all you gotta say is "wasn't me, could have been anyone I reckon"

If Babel really wanted to fight the paltry fine by taking it all the way to the European Court of Arbitration for Sport (unlikley i know), he would win easy cos you simply cannot prove it was him who said/typed/communicated it. As I know all too well, the law is ill equipped for the medium - slander, defamation, libel laws are not up to covering tweets etc

Does anyone else see the irony in getting moderated in a discussion which is ultimately about freedom of speech?

No? Just me again.

#71 The _Moog.

Do you SERIOUSLY believe that Twitter wouldn't exist if it was never mentioned on the BBC? REALLY?

Anyway, moving on, a very interesting blog Ben. I have a Twitter account, but have never used it, not really sure why I did get it, just in case I ever needed it, I suppose. I can't see the point in it, maybe in a business environment, but even then it is a bit contrived, in my opinion. I have tried, but I really don't see any value in it, apart from those who have a voyeuristic side, and who seemingly need to know what their heroes are doing every waking minute of the day.

Interesting you say about difficulty in getting access to sports stars and "proper" stories. As a journalist and magazine editor, it pains me to see mainstream newspapers and websites report stories that are based on what a celeb/sportsperson/person in the public eye has "tweeted". It is lazy and horrible journalism.

But, like you say it is the way things are going, and, given its popularity, there is clearly a demand for it out there.

Me? I'm happy not knowing Rio's opinions on Eastenders, or what Robbie Savage has for breakfast. I do think, however, that Babel crossed the line. If he had given that quote in a post-match interview (which of course he wouldn't ever do), he would be fined, so what's the difference?

Lets take the individual out of the equation and just go to the point that a footballer or in fact any 'celebrity' can post comments and their 'fans' / followers can read it and feel they are getting something from the celebrity then that is fine by me.
As the main blog says, it is not too long ago when celebrities such as footballers lived amongst us and chatted down the local. They can't do that anymore due to the press and their intrusions but in the evolving society, blogs / twitter / facebook etc are no more than a modern equivalent of going down the pub. They are after all classed as 'social networking' tools.
It is a good thing in my opinion, though some people need to be educated and grown up on how they use it but isn't that the same for everyone. How many people have posted a comment, sent an email and then thought, oh blast... that was rash of me, I shouldn't have said that... it can be taken out of context.
It is so hard to express feelings or demeanour in words and quite often things are misconstrued.

(like my posts apparently) :-)

I don't follow the sportspeople, instead the sports journalists like you, Caroline Cheese, Niel Reynolds, & Piers Newbury. Way more interesting ;)

Sports stars are mainly dull these days, they have to be I suppose.

I wish the famous amatuer athlete Francis Morgan Ayodele "Daley" Thompson had twitter in LA 1984 - now he was imaginative, with no twitter he used T-shirts. especially T-shirts with a vague reference to Carl Lewis. Pure class.

Guys like Daley would probably be too busy rogerring tho.

I love daley thompson.

Since the ECB academy opened in Loughborough, you can't throw a bag of jelly babies in my local Sainsburys without hitting a whole squad of England cricketers. So nice to see them pushing their own trolleys! Can't imagine many international footballers doing the same.

Not read all the comments so this point may have already been made. Those suggesting that Babel has the right to say what he wants on his twitter page are slightly misguided in this instance.

This isn't a free speech issue, what he did and said was potentially libelous. This is why the comment was removed and he apologised ithin an hour. The FA also acted to appease the situation between player and the referee.

He obviously has no proof whatsoever that on a balance of probabilities Howard Webb is either a Man Utd fan or biased in any way towards that club in particular.

If the FA were going to fine him, then they should set the bar at 1 week or 1 month wages - not 1 day (although not sure that would be possible). This isn't going to act as a deterrent - although at £10k it probably stops Babel checking with his lawyers if what the FA are doing is actually legal.

The FA have a "respect" campaign which players should have to adhere to.

I think the FA are far too soft. Stamping out disrespect to referees is simple. Only the captain can talk to the ref, and politely. Make the ref's mike public. Rooney should have been sent off for the way he screamed at the ref on Sunday - regardless if whether the ref was wrong or not. And large fines for yellows, larger for reds. Fine the player AND the club. Believe me, that would stamp out the behaviour in a weekend. Do you think they care that they've accumulated 5 yellows and then miss a game??

If they can do it in rugby where there is far more testosterone kicking about, they can easily do it here.

#89 - considering he probably did it from his mobile or his house then i'd say there would be proof enough really.

So where is Theo Walcott's fine for admitting he effectively cheated against Leeds?

A lot of people defending Babel on here are clearly Liverpool supporters or Man Utd haters. They may say he was expressing freedom of speech. But if the decisions on the day had gone the other way and a Man Utd player had put Webb in a Liverpool shirt, would the same people have found the funny side? Or would they say it was defamation of character? I would say the latter. There's no proof written or spoken that proves Webb was pro-Man United. Hence Babel was very quick to apologise and take down the comment.

Of the actual photo itself I thought it was funny. I would love to see more football banter like that. But in the current footballing climate there a blur between what is funny and what is offensive. Too many people crossing the line of what is acceptable and unacceptable (Here's a clue to what is and isn't. If you wouldn't like it said about your player or fans, then you've crossed the line).

As for the Walcott admission on Twitter. Plenty of players have admitted going down easy on camera and nothing has been done to them. UEFA fined and banned Eduardo, then lifted it because it would've been a yellow card offence if he had been caught. Walcott didn't benefit from the dive as the penalty was overturned (he said it was the first one he dived, not the 2nd incident which he got a penalty for).

My advice to players is just get a diary or electronic journal. Putting your comment on a social networking site (especially when you've got thousands of followers you don't know) isn't worth the bother.