Players on Social Media

[Longshot]

I noticed this morning that former Reading player Hope Akan was sent off playing for Blackburn last night for pushing the Referee after his goal against Sheffield Wednesday appeared to be incorrectly disallowed for handball. Whilst he can expect a lengthy ban for manhandling a match official he has now tweeted this morning saying that 'he hardly touched the Ref and the official made a meal of it by stumbling back which gave him the excuse to show a Red Card'. or words to that effect.

I fear that this tweet is going to get him further into trouble with a possible doubling of his ban by the FA.

I know this is less likely to happen at our level but it brings in the debate that should sports stars put their feelings known on social media. Personally i think not.

I have seen the video of his sending off and there did seem to be minimal contact on the Ref, Im afraid if you put your hands on a match official you are asking for trouble.

Anyone got their own views on this ?.

[staines_rebel_Jr]

At what point does it become an impeachment on their right to free speech. What I have never understood is that the FA force managers and players to do interviews after a match but punish them if they say anything remotely negative towards an official, who could have cost them the match. (Premier league level)

 

 

The FA have never been at the for front of equality and fairness, just look at what is happening right now as the government is having to force them into reform. So how the hell can they judge any one else on their views is simply ridiculous.

[Sir Rebel1965]

I think you both should retract your posts as they both are negative to the FA.

 

I will not have a word said against the FA who are absolutely in touch with the grass roots game.

 

This is demonstrated by them having all clubs start their flagship tournament at the same time, and they would never accept that the elite teams would be allowed to have a by into the third round proper when only a handful of grass roots teams are left to get in the way of the big money games.

 

The FA would not prostitute themselves to the highest bidder for TV rights, but have always made sure that there games are free for all to watch.

 

And anyone who said their board was made up of dithery old men only there to line their pockets is deluded.

 

Get behind the FA and close your eyes to the mess they are making of the English game.

[David Carpenter]

I have concerns regarding FA governance but as my grandmother would say a bit ungrammatically - 2 wrongs don't make a right. If as seems to be the case people are excusing the players actions on the basis of the FA situation then I fear that pushing and shoving officials could become commonplace. Clearly the case against the player has to be proved but he appears to have admitted culpability by dint of his twitter statement.

[Longshot]

I know Bakes and Unders read this forum, I wonder if any player have ever complained on Facebook or Twitter about being dropped or substituted early from a game or made comments about them or their decisions.

If this happened what would be their thoughts or reactions.  What is said or done in the changing room / on the field of play / training ground should be kept between the persons involved in my opinion.

[Neil Baker]

To be honest most of our lads are pretty good on social media, it is something that we do talk about at the start of the season, along with betting regulations.

 

Obviously we keep an eye on it, however we have not really ever seen anything that we thought was worth bringing up with a player (yet)

 

I think most know that we set our standards high, and have seen how we have dealt with players in the past, they also know that we will not stand any nonsense, and if you overstep the line they could find themselves no longer at the club.

 

Obviously there will be times that players don't agree with our decisions, same way the supporters have their views and that is fine (as football is all about opinions), but I can honestly say that we have never had a row with anyone on that basis in our time at Slough, I think this is mainly because we try to explain most of our decisions, so that even if someone does not agree with a decision, they understand why we may have done something.

[Sloughboy]

Good answer that Bakes! I think maybe a lot is to do with the sort of players you sign... we have had players in the past (no names) who would have rather a lot to say for themselves on social media!

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Good answer that Bakes! I think maybe a lot is to do with the sort of players you sign... we have had players in the past (no names) who would have rather a lot to say for themselves on social media!

 

I wonder who you might be talking about. lol

 

 

It was never mentioned on here at the time but it was great to see Hitchin make a £700 donation to Sands, the national stillbirth and neonatal death charity following their latest pay what you want game. This came not long after one of their former players, Alfie Barker, made comments on social media about Harry Arter.

[Longshot]

Thanks for the reply Bakes, Its good that we can make observations on here and get an honest answer from the management.

If you have seen the Hope Akan footage he was hard done by having his goal disallowed as it seems the Ref made a guess that the ball had been handled and was wrong, However every player at every club gets a decision against them they don't like, but you cannot place your hands on the match officials or make silly comments about them on social media. He will learn a valuable lesson sitting watching games during his ban.

[GarySTFC]

Heard an interesting point on the issue of the government getting involved with the FA that it is heavily frowned upon by FIFA/UEFA and could lead to England forfeiting some of their matches, possibly being excluded from international competition, should the government become too heavily involved in the running of the English game. 

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Heard an interesting point on the issue of the government getting involved with the FA that it is heavily frowned upon by FIFA/UEFA and could lead to England forfeiting some of their matches, possibly being excluded from international competition, should the government become too heavily involved in the running of the English game. 

 

It has happened before that FIFA have suspended countries when the government has stepped in to make changes to the sport. 2005 Greece were suspended for a short while until the government backed down after the football fans protested. In 2008 a similar situation occurred with Poland who were threatened with cancelled qualifying matches from the 2010 world cup and also being removed from the 2012 EUROs they were co hosting. There have also been quite a few cases with African ad Middle Eastern countries.

 

FIFA have never, as yet, threatened one of the big footballing powers i.e Germany, England, France, Spain etc. Though they did successfully force Brazil to legalize the sale of alcohol in stadiums for the last world cup just years after they had made it illegal. It will be interesting if they can do the same in Qatar.

[Sloughboy]

SJR you may have an educated guess or two a few who may or may not have played for us in the past and may have relatives who play football as well!

[David Carpenter]

Seemed to have drifted from Longshot's first and valid posting regarding players posting on the social media and the particular situation where a player appears to have pushed an official. The debate regarding FA Governance is a valid one but I don't think as per my earlier posting that this should be conflated with the particular players' conduct and I agree with Longshots'comments.

[Longshot]

I have just seen that Hope Akpan has been given a 3 match ban from the FA.  I am amazed at that, Thought it would be at least 5 for manhandling an official. I also assume that the FA have not seen his tweet about the Ref.  I think he is a very lucky boy to get only a 3 game ban for this.

[staines_rebel_Jr]

I have just seen that Hope Akpan has been given a 3 match ban from the FA.  I am amazed at that, Thought it would be at least 5 for manhandling an official. I also assume that the FA have not seen his tweet about the Ref.  I think he is a very lucky boy to get only a 3 game ban for this.

 

I have only just seen the video but I completely disagree that he got off lightly. He gets denied a perfectly good goal which would have equalised the score late in the game, he is clearly annoyed and barely pushes the referee who makes a HUGE meal out of it and i'm surprised he didn't decided to fall over to make it even more dramatic. The player apologises immediately before the ref is even reaching for a card. I have seen so many referees push players harder than that and no one ever mentions it. Blackburn end up getting punished by the poor officiating and because the player has the audacity to touch the referee he gets a 3 match ban !

[Longshot]

I did say in an earlier post that his goal was in my opinion incorrectly disallowed, I also agree the Ref made a meal of it, however I have just seen that the FA have just announced that they have issued a further misconduct charge against him which I assume is for his twitter comments.

This brings me back to the original post about 'should players make comments on Social media' as it can get them into deeper trouble.

Bakes said that he speaks to his players about this which is very good but its the high profile players that need to take more care than ones at our level and below.

Big Brother is always watching.

[Reading Rebel]

I have only just seen the video but I completely disagree that he got off lightly. He gets denied a perfectly good goal which would have equalised the score late in the game, he is clearly annoyed and barely pushes the referee who makes a HUGE meal out of it and i'm surprised he didn't decided to fall over to make it even more dramatic. The player apologises immediately before the ref is even reaching for a card. I have seen so many referees push players harder than that and no one ever mentions it. Blackburn end up getting punished by the poor officiating and because the player has the audacity to touch the referee he gets a 3 match ban !

 

 

Should be a minimum 3 match ban.

 

Doesn't matter that the ref disallowed a good goal, they are only human and will make mistakes. Also doesn't matter how hard the ref is pushed, the fact is a player cannot lay his hands on a ref.

 

Personally I cannot remember ever seeing a ref lay his hands on a player.

[Longshot]

The FA have now given him a further misconduct charge which must be for the tweet about the Ref. Did not think he would get off that lightly.

[David Carpenter]

I agree as previously with Longshot and now with Reading Rebel. The line SRJ is taking leads to total anarchy!

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Freedom of speech 0-1 the man !!!!!!