No
longer does the average Premier League fan, or football supporter in
general turn up to a match at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon
to watch their beloved side win, lose or draw and then forget about
it until the following Saturday. Fans want to be kept in touch with
what is happening with their club constantly, all day, and every day.
It is simply part of the constitution of modern day football. Sky
Sports have really been the catalysts in fuelling this culture now
apparent in football, exemplified most greatly by Sky Sports News,
which runs by the tag line ’24 hours a day, 7 days a week’.
The
most recent exponent of this culture is Twitter. The main function of
Twitter is that it is a medium in which the players can interact with
their fans in a relatively safe environment. The problem is that it
has become out of control. Very rarely does a day go by without
hearing a negative Twitter news story and Twitter guidelines with the
FA Code of Conduct highlights their concerns over it.
The
problem with Twitter is that ultimately, it inhibits too many flaws.
The first of these flaws is that it is too easy to Tweet. In the
space of thirty seconds and four clicks on my phone, I can post a
tweet. And this is dangerous when human emotion is involved. When
‘tweeting’, humans cannot be emotional. Ashley Cole found this to
his detriment when he blasted the FA following their reasons for
suspending John Terry. He later said he regretted his tweet which was
sent in the heat of the moment.
The
second problem with Twitter is that fans, and players, are too
irresponsible with it. The reality is that unfortunately most tweets
are negative rather than positive. If fans mention a player in their
tweet, it is more often than not to criticise rather than praise
their performance. For example, in this summer's Euro 2012 when
England crashed out on penalties to Italy those 'idiots' were
straight on Twitter racially abusing the players that missed –
Ashley Cole and Ashley Young. Which really is disgusting behaviour.
What makes them think that is okay behaviour? Would they do that if
they saw them on the street? Of course not, but they see Twitter as a
wall to hide behind. Another example would be what happened to Kyle
Walker earlier this week. He revealed he had closed his Twitter
account following the abuse he received from fans criticising his
mistake which led to Chelsea’s fourth goal in their win on
Saturday. The biggest problem with it is that there is a small
minority of 'idiots' on Twitter who think because they're allowed to
tweet people, they can tweet what they like.
I
would be interested to see the amount of praise he has received for
his previous impressive performances in comparison to the abuse he
has received in the last 3 days. I would cynically suggest he hasn’t
been praised all that much. Players too, are culprits of
irresponsible tweeting. I think that sometimes they forget what their
main purpose for Twitter should be. In their role as professional
footballers, they should communicate with fans in a positive way.
Too
often players live up to their stereotype of being thugs and idiots
when they interact with fans who are clearly just mindless idiots.
Arsenal’s Emmanuel Frimpong was guilty of this in July when he
called a fan a term which is derogatory towards race and ethnic
origin. Too often players use Twitter as a forum to criticise
authority bodies or fellow professional footballers which they must
know will land them in hot water. Rio Ferdinand was a culprit of this
when he labelled Ashley Cole a “choc-ice” following the trial
involving John Terry and Anton Ferdinand. Both players were fined by
the FA for their comments, and to this extent there is an argument to
suggest that Twitter is just a way of getting footballers into
trouble.
The
point about freedom of expression is an interesting one. This is
because footballers believe that they should be entitled to it. And
in many ways they should. The problem is that there is a great
contradiction when considering freedom of expression. The
contradiction lies between being able to express an opinion, and
being responsible and accountable to your actions as a role model or
a celebrity. Many footballers have millions of followers on Twitter
and should know what they're saying will be seen by millions and
should realise what they're saying it wrong.
This
being said, crucially there is no way of eradicating Twitter.
However, is there no way of harnessing the damage that Twitter
appears to cause? Are there any solutions? Well perhaps. I believe
that players and clubs should utilise their websites more. If players
want to post an opinion, then why not post it through the club
website? If it too controversial, then chief editors of the website
can advise them against posting it. Clubs already have their own
pages on Twitter. So again, an alternative suggestion is to start
‘trending’ and ‘mentioning’ their clubs more often on their
tweets. I personally think Twitter should be banned by their managers
because it only seems to get teams and the players into trouble.
Of
course, there are exceptions to this and it is only the bad things
that are seen in the press. In fact, the vast majority do use it how
it's meant to be used - which is a way of interacting with their fans
on their day to day involvements with their club. In my opinion,
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero is an example of how a top
footballer should use Twitter. He picks up an injury at the start of
the season, updates his followers weekly on his progress and thanks
them for their support. It’s quite simple. In doing this, he
effectively turns a negative news story into a positive one. Another
example of when many footballers have used Twitter for good was the
Fabrice Muamba situation. When Fabrice Muamba suffered his Cardiac
Arrest against Spurs in the FA Cup last season.'Pray for Muamba' was
constantly being tweeted from footballers and fans on Twitter and
that must have gone someway in giving Fabrice the confidence to come
back from such a tragic state of affairs.
The
final thing to add is that more than likely, Twitter will not always
be around. Technology, and especially social media, is an ever
changing phenomenon. It will surely only be a matter of time until
the next craze comes along and blows Twitter out of the water.
