Before the advent of televised football matches, fans had to be content to listening to radio commentaries, and then reading the match write-up in the evening papers. Move on a few years, and cameras appeared at every pitch, with footballers giving post-match commentaries to television interviewers, offering their fans a more personal inside take on the game. When Twitter burst onto the scene it gave the players an opportunity to ‘speak’ to a worldwide audience without being censored by a tv producer, newspaper editor, or club manager. So is the marriage of football and Twitter a good or bad idea?
Many of America’s prestigious football clubs now have their own Twitter page, with the Baltimore Ravens currently having the most followers. The San Fransico 49ers are no. 1 on the club trending chart with Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos topping the list with over 800,000 Twitter mentions.
Whilst the majority of players have used this service sensibly, and given their fans an insight into their fabulous lives, it has also been the downfall of quite a few resulting in loss of earnings and damaging careers. The NFL thinks frivolous tweeting could seriously damage its business so it has ruled no player can tweet 90 minutes before kick-off and not until their post-match obligations have been met. Several players have fallen foul of these rules and received heavy fines as a result. T. J. Lang of the Green Bay Packers has the third most retweeted tweet of all time, criticising the referee when his team lost to the Seattle Seahawks and venting his feelings using his Twitter account.
ClickitTicket’s well-researched infographic offers you the opportunity to compare various footballers and their followers to see which offer the best ‘value for money’. It also gives information as to what and who these millionaires follow in turn, some of which might surprise you!