“You can’t defend yourself. You’re a sitting duck really and you need to try and be able to blank it out of your mind – but some of the stuff they say is too much. If you can’t handle it you should stay off Twitter or else you’re going to be getting fined a lot.”
In addition to facing a possible disciplinary hearing by the FA for comments he made in an interview about referee Jon Moss, Andy Carroll could face a heavy fine for breaching strict social media rules.
The West Ham striker retweeted a message by former Manchester United stopper Peter Schmeichel on twitter saying “Is that ref on drugs”. Although he didn’t pen the message, his retweet will be seen as an endorsement of the message to his 308,000 followers could well be seen as a breach of the FA’s social media rules not to bring the game of football into disrepute.
FA rule E3 says “A Participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game and shall not act in any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute or use any one, or a combination of, violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting words or behaviour”
Liverpool’s Ryan Babel was once fined for the FA for retweeting a photo of referee Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt and the FA have since collected over £350,000 in fines including high-profile cases involving Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand who also received a 3 match ban in addition to a fine.
I do a teaching session on Twitter, and I make it very clear that re-tweeting something is not an endorsement; it can simply be for comment or discussion. Now, we can infer that the Big Man was in agreement with what Schmeichel said (although I have no doubt that he was feeling aggrieved on behalf of his boy), but unless Carroll outright comes out and says that, then there is no proof of anything.
Mario Balotelli was banned for one match and fined £25,000 after being found guilty of breaching Football Association rules by reposting a controversial image of Super Mario on Instagram in 2014.
Are we living in 60’s soviet union? When did we give up the right to free speech?Is it not still part of our constitution? Why should F A officials be exempt from criticism as long as it’s not abusive? If i don’t do my job correctly i expect to be criticised so why treat refs differently?
The FA would argue it is about being the name of football into disrepute. Obviously a joke by Schmeichel but the tweet questions whether a FA official is taking drugs.If they allowed all criticism of their officials or organisation without investigation they would weaken the brand and the authority of the match officials.