Football players fined because of Twitter: total rubbish or rightly deserved?

There’s no doubt that Twitter is THE social media hit at the moment. More and more people are setting up a Twitter-account and more and more football players are enjoying Twitter as well. These players share all kinds of stories and pictures from ‘behind the scenes’ with their followers (mostly fans). I follow players like Robin van Persie (@Persie_Official), Ruud van Nistelrooy (@RvN1776) and Cesc Fabregas (@cesc4official) myself as well and I’ve got to admit that it’s kind of fun to read about the everyday life of these players. I haven’t looked up a lot of other players yet but I think I will in the near future.

issues I want to discuss however are the cases in which a player gets fined because of a tweet. Several players had to cede a part of their salary due to a tweet that wasn’t appreciated by their own club, other clubs or the football association from the specific country involved. Probably the most commonly known Twitter-issue in Holland is the Twitpic fired onto the web by Ryan Babel (@RyanBabel), a Liverpool striker at the time. After losing the match against Manchester United, a game in which referee Howard Webb made some doubtful decisions (‘again!?’ will every Dutch person think after the lost World Cup final). Babel’s reaction after the game was a Tweet containing a picture of Howard Webb in a ManU-shirt accompanied by another Tweet with the words: “And they call him one of the best referees. That’s a joke. SMH” (SMH meaning ‘Shake My Head’). This whole saga ended with a fine (becoming the first player to be punished by the FA for Twitter actions).

I could now discuss lots of other cases in which players Tweet stuff that isn’t appreciated by some people; I think it’s more interesting however to look for reasons why players do this and to discuss where to draw the line on what’s a proper Tweet and what’s not. I mean it can be argued if it’s really offensive to post a picture like the one above. I think it’s more funny than rude and therefore a fine is not in place. However it should be considered that players are an example to a lot of (young) people and therefore should pay attention to what they say, whether it’s in an interview or on social media. I guess the truth lies within both statements, which makes it hard to judge all these cases. The key question on this issue is off course where to draw the line? What do you think?

Thanks for reading, hope u enjoyed it!!