Perhaps ironic given that its kit logo is a bird Norwich City winger Robert Snodgrass has avoided face disciplinary action after criticising referee Mark Clattenburg on Twitter.
Clattenburg was the centre of attention at Upton Park after awarding the Hammers a penalty for an innocuous looking shirt pull by Ryan Bennett on Winston Reid inside the opening two minutes.
The decision left City’s players and boss Chris Hughton fuming, while he also failed to award a free-kick following Carlton Cole’s foul on Alexander Tettey in the lead up to West Ham’s second goal.
Snodgrass took to Twitter to unleash his fury at referee Mark Clattenburg following Norwich’s defeat, tweeting: “The referee kills the game #gamesgone.
“If that’s a pen you will need to give 100 pens a season, small decisions change games. Win some you lose some. Great support again.”
The FA confirmed there will be no action against Snodgrass - players and managers can criticise refereeing decisions so long as they do not imply any bias.
The FA's social media rules state action may be taken for "comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials' integrity or which are personally offensive in nature".
Boss Hughton also hit out at Clattenburg after his side fell to a fourth consecutive defeat by a single goal.
“You accept sometimes referee’s get it wrong or they don’t see it,” said the former Newcastle and Birmingham manager.
“But the one that really hurts is when penalties are given when they shouldn’t be. The penalty obviously affects the game.
“You get a penalty against you two minutes into the game, which gives these fans a
great lift here, and you could see by the reaction of our players at the time how disappointed they were.
“Even if the penalty stands, you’re not seriously going to tell me the Alex Tettey incident wasn’t a foul. Absolutely it was.
“That’s knocked us a little bit.”
Player Education
Just like any other employee/employer relationship, the policy should set out what players can and should not comment on and needs to be communicated to players effectively. In order to do this it is important for clubs to educate their players as to the potential pitfalls of inappropriate use of social media and the likely sanctions they will face for non-compliance such as a ban from playing as well as fines from the governing body or players club.
Control Content and Privacy Settings
In order to effectively communicate the parameters of what players can post about via social media a number of clubs have set strict guidelines in relation to issues such as matters relating to the club e.g. team selection, comments on fellow players or officials and transfer speculation. However, while guidelines are in place, any policy is only likely to be as good as its enforcement, if this is not the case then there is no guarantee that such policies followed by players (see for example Joey Barton’s tweets (@Joey7Barton) for a number of examples of disputes with fellow players).
In terms of managing such risk, it may be prudent for clubs to consider the implementation of blackout periods for a few hours before, during and after a game when tensions are running high. An example of a situation which would have benefited from this involved a series of Tweets passing between Joey Barton, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer after they were critical of Barton’s behaviour on the final day of the 2011/12 season. The incident saw Barton sent off and receive a 12 match ban. Barton also admitted during the exchange that he had deliberately tried to get a Manchester City player sent off which was one of the leading factors to him receiving the fourth longest match ban in the English games history. It is arguable that for situations such as Cole’s where disciplinary actions are being taken against other players, there should be additional strict rules on comments made in relation to ongoing FA panel decisions in continuing and recently decided investigations.
Comment
Digital media is a specialist area and the specialist skills required to fully utilise its capabilities should not be underestimated. However without the commitment of the key people any planned strategy is likely to be unsuccessful. In order to achieve ‘success’ (measured against internal key indicators) it will be necessary to highlight shortcomings, and quite possibly advisable in the case of skill sets, to bring in consultants and legal consultants to work alongside the existing employees to create, implement and maintain a viable and legally compliant strategy which is effectively communicated to players and enforceable by club officials.
For more advice, hints and tips, click the RSS feed button and get the latest updates
Clattenburg was the centre of attention at Upton Park after awarding the Hammers a penalty for an innocuous looking shirt pull by Ryan Bennett on Winston Reid inside the opening two minutes.
The decision left City’s players and boss Chris Hughton fuming, while he also failed to award a free-kick following Carlton Cole’s foul on Alexander Tettey in the lead up to West Ham’s second goal.
Snodgrass took to Twitter to unleash his fury at referee Mark Clattenburg following Norwich’s defeat, tweeting: “The referee kills the game #gamesgone.
“If that’s a pen you will need to give 100 pens a season, small decisions change games. Win some you lose some. Great support again.”
The FA confirmed there will be no action against Snodgrass - players and managers can criticise refereeing decisions so long as they do not imply any bias.
The FA's social media rules state action may be taken for "comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials' integrity or which are personally offensive in nature".
Boss Hughton also hit out at Clattenburg after his side fell to a fourth consecutive defeat by a single goal.
“You accept sometimes referee’s get it wrong or they don’t see it,” said the former Newcastle and Birmingham manager.
“But the one that really hurts is when penalties are given when they shouldn’t be. The penalty obviously affects the game.
“You get a penalty against you two minutes into the game, which gives these fans a
great lift here, and you could see by the reaction of our players at the time how disappointed they were.
“Even if the penalty stands, you’re not seriously going to tell me the Alex Tettey incident wasn’t a foul. Absolutely it was.
“That’s knocked us a little bit.”
Player Education
Just like any other employee/employer relationship, the policy should set out what players can and should not comment on and needs to be communicated to players effectively. In order to do this it is important for clubs to educate their players as to the potential pitfalls of inappropriate use of social media and the likely sanctions they will face for non-compliance such as a ban from playing as well as fines from the governing body or players club.
Control Content and Privacy Settings
In order to effectively communicate the parameters of what players can post about via social media a number of clubs have set strict guidelines in relation to issues such as matters relating to the club e.g. team selection, comments on fellow players or officials and transfer speculation. However, while guidelines are in place, any policy is only likely to be as good as its enforcement, if this is not the case then there is no guarantee that such policies followed by players (see for example Joey Barton’s tweets (@Joey7Barton) for a number of examples of disputes with fellow players).
In terms of managing such risk, it may be prudent for clubs to consider the implementation of blackout periods for a few hours before, during and after a game when tensions are running high. An example of a situation which would have benefited from this involved a series of Tweets passing between Joey Barton, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer after they were critical of Barton’s behaviour on the final day of the 2011/12 season. The incident saw Barton sent off and receive a 12 match ban. Barton also admitted during the exchange that he had deliberately tried to get a Manchester City player sent off which was one of the leading factors to him receiving the fourth longest match ban in the English games history. It is arguable that for situations such as Cole’s where disciplinary actions are being taken against other players, there should be additional strict rules on comments made in relation to ongoing FA panel decisions in continuing and recently decided investigations.
Comment
Digital media is a specialist area and the specialist skills required to fully utilise its capabilities should not be underestimated. However without the commitment of the key people any planned strategy is likely to be unsuccessful. In order to achieve ‘success’ (measured against internal key indicators) it will be necessary to highlight shortcomings, and quite possibly advisable in the case of skill sets, to bring in consultants and legal consultants to work alongside the existing employees to create, implement and maintain a viable and legally compliant strategy which is effectively communicated to players and enforceable by club officials.
For more advice, hints and tips, click the RSS feed button and get the latest updates
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