England's Soccer Team Faces New Rules About Tweeting

Soccer players in England will soon be facing new restrictions on Twitter use. The FA is expected to announce a new code of conduct that will include conditions on Twitter use for the England team. Though full details of the new code of conduct have yet to emerge, it's said that comments on match day, or the day before, can only be posted once players have sought approval from management. According to the Belfast Telegraph, players will also be forbidden from criticizing team-mates, team staff, referees or officials whether it's on Twitter or Facebook.

Soccer players' use of Twitter has been under scrutiny as of late. Earlier this month, Chelsea's Ashley Cole got himself into hot water after posting insulting remarks about the Football Association on his Twitter page. However, it's not just social networking that players will have to be mindful of under these new rules. The Belfast Telegraph reports that it also contains certain stipulations about video games and mobile phone use. Apparently, players are allowed to play video games for 'a sensible amount of time' and the use of mobile phones in certain areas, such as the meal-room, dressing room and on the team bus, is "at the discretion of the head coach."

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  • greghome
    Soccer players in England
    Oh you Americas, the rest of the world calls this game football :P
    Reply
  • How about monitoring all those "acting performances" on the field instead?
    Reply
  • NuclearShadow
    Censorship is never a good thing. This seems to be out of complete fear of criticism whether warranted or not. Also limiting their video game and phone time? We are talking about adult athletes here right? When you treat your athletes like children is there any wonder why they voice discontent?

    greghomeOh you Americas, the rest of the world calls this game football
    We Americans are slow at adapting to changes, so soccer it remains. You should be happy that we even some what play the sport here after Soccer is the first sport to come out of the closet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xLn-X8YJRg


    Reply
  • chewy1963
    greghomeOh you Americas, the rest of the world calls this game football
    Two quick observations:

    1) It is UK writer Jane who wrote the article.

    2) Football is used for a different sport here in the US. It would either be confusing or overly verbose (Association Football) to change our name for the sport from soccer to football.
    Reply
  • nieur
    why the hell FA concerns how much time players play video games? if they are regular on practice/fitness sessions it is none of FA's concern what player do in their free time
    Reply
  • killerclick
    Oh, how I miss the days when only smart people used computers, because they were so expensive and complicated.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    greghomeOh you Americas, the rest of the world calls this game football
    And? We still use the Imperial Measurement system. One of the southwestern states tried to include metric system in their highway signs back in the 70's or 80's, and I do believe most of them have been removed because they were confusing drivers.
    Reply
  • freggo
    A Bad DayAnd? We still use the Imperial Measurement system.

    Yep, we -the USA- are the only industrial nation left that has not figured out that the metric system is easier to use.
    Reply
  • alidan
    freggoA Bad DayAnd? We still use the Imperial Measurement system. Yep, we -the USA- are the only industrial nation left that has not figured out that the metric system is easier to use.i love how im looked at like a moron because i have no clue what any of the imperial measurements are
    distance... volume mesurement... weight...
    im 24, and i have yet to learn any of that crap,
    but i know the metric system...

    and in school, it was me and a drug dealer were the only ones who knew the metric system... well... he knew the conversions for imperial to metric for reasons we can all guess.
    Reply
  • "Chelsea's Ashley Cole got himself into hot water after posting insulting remarks about the Football Association on his Twitter page."

    I completely disagree. Players should be able to freely criticize their league and organization.
    Reply