His name is Rio....

The sports world is desperately grappling with the use of Twitter, notably in high profile sports like football. Hardly a day goes by without a high profile sporting personality involved in a twitter controversy.

Sir Alex Ferguson said in May, shortly after Wayne Rooney had got in trouble for threatening to sort out  someone in the Twittersphere: “I don’t understand it to be honest with you… there are a million things you can do in your life without that. Get yourself down to the library and read a book.” 

However, many of the players seemingly certainly can’t live without twitter – and with some having a staggering number of followers, (Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand 1.4 million each) clearly we’re fascinated by their every word.

In an age when many Sports fans feel disconnected from their clubs’ stars they idolise who (well certainly in the case of Premier League footballers) are on exorbitant salaries, Twitter has made a huge impact.

Fans fascinated by the day-to-day lives of our idols can follow the every movement – and even if they are not, the media are doing it for us.

In reality social media etiquette should mirror the approach taken with other forms of media, and that’s exactly what we stressed when we provided a set of guidelines to our client Castleford Tigers for their players to follow.

The problem is as soon as anything controversial is aired like when Wayne Rooney infamously said after arguing with a fan on the site ‘I’ll put you asleep within 10 seconds’… it reflects badly not only the player but their employers and the game in general.

It comes as no surprise that clubs like Wolves have recently announced that a media law firm will be liaising with the club, warning the squad about the potential pitfalls of twitter whilst Newcastle have already  told their players they could be sued for breach of contract if they criticise the club.

Perhaps it won’t be long before others follow in the footsteps of Leeds United and ban twitter completely for fear of losing control over that the players are saying.

However I’m sure many avid sports fans will agree that Twitter has somewhat reversed the trend that the stars we idolise have become more and more detached from their team’s supporters so as long as they can be educated to communicate within acceptable parameters, long may it continue.

robert.stebbings@ptarmiganbp.co.uk

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