It all kicked off in the world of Twitter last week. The first FA improper conduct charge related to the social networking site was handed out to Liverpool’s Ryan Babel and a couple of QPR players didn’t hold back in letting Blackburn’s El Hadji Diouf know their feelings towards him. So with Twitter becoming more popular amongst footballers and them seeing it as a chance to have their two pennies worth, is Twitter just a bit of fun or are players stepping over the line?
Let’s start with the Babel case. Babel posted a link to a mocked up picture of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt. While probably not the most sensible move, surely it was just a bit of fun and the FA giving him a fine is just showing how out of touch the organisation is with reality. Just because Babel is a footballer does it mean he doesn’t get a right to free speech? I’m sure Webb didn’t lose any sleep over it, it might have just encouraged him to put Babel in his book the next time the two of them meet!
PFA chief Gordon Taylor summed it up perfectly by saying “Where’s our sense of humour gone in our game?” Taylor went on to say “To my mind, and to most footballers’ minds, it is the same sort of stuff that flies about every weekend via mobile phones, but they are obviously taking a stance on it. I thought a warning would have been sufficient.” Let’s face it, referees get abuse shouted at them for 90 minutes every weekend, I’m sure one Tweet isn’t going to make a big difference.
Then there’s the Tweeting incident involving QPR. I want to start off by saying that El Hadji Diouf is one of the players I despise most in British football. By all accounts his behaviour in the FA Cup was disgraceful, but then that doesn’t surprise me. QPR manager Neil Warnock obviously doesn’t have a very high opinion of him, describing him as a “sewer rat” after his four-letter tirade to Jamie Mackie as he lay on the ground seriously injured.
On Twitter following the match QPR’s Bradley Orr posted “Never come across a more repulsive human being than E-H Diouf! The things he was saying were disgusting! The lad has just broken his leg! You horrible disgusting man E-H Diouf! Your time will come!” Maybe the last bit was a tad unnecessary. Goalkeeper Paddy Kenny added “That **** Diouf will get it one day, what goes around comes around.” I think maybe Diouf would do well to stay clear of the QPR players in the near future.
You can’t really blame the QPR players for venting their feelings towards Diouf in response to the despicable actions of the Senegalese striker. Maybe they would have been better off keeping their opinions of him to themselves, but then we wouldn’t get to follow an interesting Twitter account! I wonder what Twitter misconduct charge Babel would have been given if he said that about Mr Webb?
Babel now says he’s in “Twitter Jail”, but is that where footballers should stay? I hope not because Twitter gives us an insight into what players are actually thinking, rather than the mundane cliché’s they come out with in post-match interviews. Does anyone know if Ian Holloway has a Twitter account? That would be well worth following, that’s for sure!
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