Emma Raducanu, 18, was lectured by some middle-aged men on how to handle pressure when she withdrew from Wimbledon. She regrouped and two months later she's a Grand Slam champion. Let it be a turning point: support our young people and back them to find their own path to success.
When a teenage fan of
@FulhamFC
, who has cerebral palsy, was sent abuse online, the club put his photo on their website as a first team player. That was brilliant. Today when they scored, the players went one better. This, this, a thousand times this. Brilliantly well done FFC.
It's tone deaf, that tweet from Ronaldo, and if you're one of the many people replying to Gary to say it's fine, then you're tone deaf too. When athletes - any celebrities - tweet they need some awareness of the world around them, and to know that it doesn't revolve around them.
Just thinking, all those people who said Poch, Kane and Eriksen would have to go to Madrid if they wanted to win trophies, were right all along. Fair play.
The next thing that will happen:
1️⃣ Daily Mail will run a story suggesting supermarkets might run out of x
2️⃣ People will panic and buy x in bulk
3️⃣ Mail will write a story about how selfish people should stop buying x in bulk as supermarkets are running out of it
#Lockdown2
Literally everything about VAR needs to be reframed. If you think the Iran pen wasn't a pen, the ref got it wrong not VAR. He had a chance to review and called it that way. If you think it was a pen (not many do), VAR helped the ref get it right. Not a "VAR assisted goal", FFS.
Please come and save our Christmas but make sure you leave again by Christmas Eve? Jeez. We just get classier and classier don't we? Time to rethink pretty much all of this.
Tonight's game will see the Football Lads getting performatively offended by the word soccer - a word us Brits invented, was used here all the time up until the 90s, and is still used here without anyone blinking an eye (Soccer Saturday, Soccer AM, Soccer Aid, Soccer Scene ...)
Once again it's worth repeating that people worked from home because they were told to by law, and it wasn't easy for everyone, balancing jobs and families, but they did it and carried the UK economy on their backs. Thank them, don't patronise them.
A gentle reminder that it's perfectly possible and reasonable to enjoy rugby this morning *and * football this afternoon.
If you don't like one of them, you have the option to do something else while it's on, and just enjoy your sport, rather than being a tiresome smart arse.
As a kid, I watched football matches through fences. If you are unaware of the reasons why those fences were removed, you have no place in a football stadium. If you break the inherent pact that we in turn do not run on the pitch and assault people, it's a betrayal of a tragedy.
To whom it may concern: you have no idea why people are queueing outside shops. Don't be a dick about it. Maybe their kids have badly outgrown their clothes during lockdown. Maybe they need a change of scene for their mental health. Try to be a lot less judgy and a bit more kind.
Just seen a video doing the rounds. I'm not sharing it or even referring to who's in it. I'll say this though - if you see someone out in public, worse for wear, and your response is to take photos or video of them and put it online, you're a dickhead. That's entirely on you.
I get that these ads were a stretch but it's weird that we set way higher standards for advertisers than for political leaders. Ryanair gets a telling off for this (perhaps rightly) but politicians, whose word should be official, can say whatever they want and nothing happens.
Lost 2 stone in weight (28 pounds or 12.7kg) between 27th August (back to work after summer holiday) and 25th October (today). No booze at all, hardly any carbs, and lots of running. Pleased with that.
Some news ...
I'm very excited to be the new CEO of
@7League
and
@MailmanGroup
in EMEA. We have a huge future serving the sports industry on digital and it's an honour to lead our brilliant team as we do so.
And now, back to work on behalf of our clients ... 😁
Not sure how long this has been there for, but the header image on the
@49ers
' Twitter profile carries a powerful quote from the legendary
@RSherman_25
.
Great example of a sports brand using its own Twitter real estate to take a clear position on an issue that really matters.
Someone very wise said to me about 10 years ago: the answer to bad noise is more good noise. People have spent that decade trying to stop online abuse when what we need is to have so much good noise that it leaves no room for bad. This is the best example of that you'll ever see.
15 years ago I sat with a newborn baby daughter and watched
@EnglandRugby
win in Australia to become world champions.
In 2018, this
@EnglandNetball
team has gone to Oz and written their own names into sporting history - what a thing for my now teenage daughter to be inspired by.
Lots of people spend lots of time thinking up ways to stop online abuse. You could come up with a hundred products, policies or punishments but this beats any of them. Players wrapping their arms around someone and saying no - this person is one of us and we won't stand for it.
Enjoying the
@SuperLeague
opener (St Helen's v Catalans Dragons). If I was going to adopt a team, who should I pick? I think maybe
@leedsrhinos
. Yes, no?
Great to see
@CelticFC
being innovative and announcing a new signing on
@tiktok_uk
. Funny to read some of the comments about it under this tweet. What those people may not realise is that it was once just as unthinkable to announce a new signing on Twitter ...
Easy to forget how much the media landscape changed in a decade. Gary can clarify these remarks the day before a newspaper is published. He has 7m Twitter followers - almost 20 times the circulation of the newspaper in question (according to Google). Unthinkable 10 years ago.
I can see a big twisting of my words coming here. To be clear, I was just making a point that it’s difficult to draw a line on who can and who cannot host a World Cup. There is corruption in all countries (different levels of course) including our own. Where do you start?
6️⃣ months sober as of today
✅ Run every day this year so far
2️⃣ 100+ mile months in a row for 1st time in over 4 years
The way we get through tough times will be different for us all. For me, running and not drinking alcohol helps. I don't always manage it but I'm trying atm.
It ⚽️ is ⚽️ just ⚽️ a ⚽️ video ⚽️ replay. Not "technology". A replay. Like your Mum and Dad had on Betamax in the 1980s. He watched it then made a call and got it right or wrong depending on your view. Like refs have always made calls, and got them right or wrong.
I didn't know Liverpool had someone helping their players improve their throw-ins. Interesting idea. Football has almost limitless resource - why not invest in anything that improve things even a tiny bit? Better to be an innovator than a dinosaur sniping from a TV studio.
I've found the sneering at the 10pm rule to be pretty unedifying. It's not that daft - we can still go out but people drop their guard after a few drinks. They're trying to strike a balance. Requires us to respond like grown-ups and take personal responsibility. Let's try that.
This just arrived. Lots of punters in 🏈 are from 🇦🇺 including
@HawkeyeFootball
's
@torytaylor09
. The shirt refers to that but more importantly Tory donates the proceeds to
@CounttheKicksUS
. Because of that I happily bought one. Great service shipping it to the UK,
@RAYGUNshirts
!
Surely the first time two siblings have been Head Coach of two England teams simultaneously, with
@traceynev
in charge of the
@EnglandNetball
Roses? Congratulations to Phil on the new role.
- that looks like an interesting article
- hit link in tweet
- wait for slow-loading website
- accept cookies
- no do not want to receive emails
- accept cookies again
- click away random quiz
- start scrolling
- accidentally click ad for travel agent
- give up. back to twitter
Powerful stuff. I didn't realise what a tough time
@JonWalters19
has had - he comes across brilliantly here and, no surprise,
@henrywinter
as always comes out of this brilliantly. Other people, just as unsurprisingly, less so.
"I was never scared as a player. When you have bullies that try and bully you, I always do the right thing."
@JonWalters19
tells the full story following Roy Keane’s attack on him.
#LiquidFootball
| Together with
@paddypower
Here's a thing that may cheer you up.
There is a children's hospital overlooking Iowa's football stadium.
Before each game, the whole crowd waves to the kids who watch from the windows.
No fans now but the players still do it.
One of the loveliest traditions in all of sports.
I love the way Hibs look after their own on social media, especially the 2016 Scottish Cup team, ie with shout-outs for John McGinn getting promoted to the Premier League and Liam Henderson going up to Serie A. Good stuff.
Had a great evening at the
@SuperLeague
Grand Final at Old Trafford. I came away with my opinion from the Challenge Cup Final reinforced: this is an incredible sport - fast, furious, physical - and it will be a privilege for
@7League
to help grow it as part of
@IMG
's partnership.
I genuinely think what Zoom achieved in 2020 is one of the most remarkable stories in tech history. The world's meetings moved online and a comparatively small independent won a huge chunk of that traffic against internet giants like Google and Microsoft. Not talked about enough.
Zoom is on pace for 3 trillion meeting minutes annually, up from 100 billion in January.
That's more minutes than adult Americans spend on Facebook in a typical year.
20 years ago today I was at Wembley with my Dad to see
@SpursOfficial
win the League Cup. I was 22, he was 55. 4 months later he got sick. The year after we lost him. People can say whatever they want about Spurs and trophies. I don't give a shit. We had that day. We always will.
If that's
@brianmoore666
's last one, what a legend. Very few co-commentators can educate you about a sport while also keeping the tone, tempo and excitement high. Brian, John McEnroe and the late, great John Madden all have done it. Superb broadcaster.
Not sure who the
@btsport
interviewer was on the pitch just then - Darrell Currie I think? - but outstanding job in getting that line out of Hazard. Even if everyone kinda knew, he got the line out of him with repeated and respectful questioning. Well done - impressive.
Here's a thing. I tweeted about Hibs' use of social media yesterday. Hibs replied - unexpected but lovely. Because they did so, lots of Hibs fans liked my original tweet, replied or even followed me. They're all lovely. I love football. And football people. And Scottish Twitter.
@LewisWiltshire
Thanks, Lewis. John and Liam continue to be great ambassadors for the club, on and off the pitch. We’re proud of everything they have achieved and there will always be a place for them at Easter Road.
I went to football most weeks in the 80s w/ my Dad. I heard the chants at black players. From a minority but everyone else ignored it - nothing was done. Between the racism and crumbling, dangerous stadia, do me a favour with "football was better in the old days" crap. It wasn't.
So now we're down to details. How quickly can it happen? Does it disrupt the game? Have you ever seen stats about how much of a game the ball is out of play for? What about players pretending to be injured. This isn't much disruption to get such huge decisions right (or wrong).
Mate. Imagine being Specsavers and sponsoring a Test when a lad helps secure one of the most famous victories in English sporting history while wearing actual glasses. For anyone in marketing, imagine that one falling into your lap.
Excellent interview with Howard Webb on
@SkySportsPL
with
@KellyCates
,
@Carra23
, Karen Carney and
@GNev2
.
Spoke a ton of sense about VAR and all other aspects of refereeing at Premier League level. If Sky clip it up and publish it here, it's worth your time.
Football has never stayed the same - it has always evolved. Like languages, if we freeze something in time it will die. Products are never perfect to start with. The refs make the decisions. It isn't 'chaos' and it isn't 'ruining games'. Nor is it perfect. Things rarely are.
Stop filming people on the Tube and posting it on social media. Someone's drunk, you think it's funny. You've no idea why they're drinking or how damaging it might be for them to go viral. Every time you like one of those posts you contribute to more people seeing that. Not OK.
Did refs get most things right before VAR? Yes in my view. Was there an occasional clanger like Henry's handball against Ireland? Also yes. If we have video replays by the side of the field, should the refs have the ability to quickly watch it and be sure? Surely, yes.
#Breaking
In a statement outside 10 Downing Street after a five-hour Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Theresa May said that Cabinet has agreed the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement
Had some corporate pics done last year - hated how I looked. Heavier than I'd been in 3 years. Was the prompt I needed to lose the weight I'd put on. Today I hit target - lost 29 pounds since Jan 1st (210lbs to 181lbs). No carbs at all in 2023. Gonna have fish and chips tonight!
In honour of
@HibernianFC
, my new footballing crush, winning their first pre-season friendly today, I am listening to the Sunshine on Leith movie soundtrack on Alexa while cooking in the kitchen. It's different from the Proclaimers original material but also a joy.
#GGTTH
We went to France. My wife put a pic on Facebook of our kids on the beach. Captioned it "Cagnes sur Mer." Facebook decided to translate this - possibly confusing Cagnes with the Italian "Cagna" (female dog). Anyway the results shocked her Facebook friends back home.
😂😂😂
@jessbrammar
Also hardly a surprise if she doesn't want "men in Suits" to deliver the baby. Nobody would be pleased to see their former work colleagues at a moment like that.
It isn't perfect and there needs to be better communication particularly for people at the stadium (although, sacrilege to say it, the priority now will be TV audiences - economic reality) but ⚽️ no ⚽️ new ⚽️ product ⚽️ ever ⚽️ is ⚽️ perfect ⚽️ straight ⚽️ away.
I don't understand this argument that VAR should be used at all stadiums in a competition or none. If one game has the ability to help the on-field ref make better decisions, use it. It has absolutely no impact on the quality of refereeing decisions in a totally separate match.
My stag do was in 2001. Before social media. We went to a pub in Greenwich, had some beers, then played golf the next day. Nobody was a dick. Rather than blaming social media for making it too risky to be a dick, I would suggest just not being a dick.
News seems to be positive and if so - 🙏 - once again it shows us how blessed we are to have medical professionals around us. Not just in football. People who save people in every country of the world, every day. The truest heroes of all. Stay strong, Christian 🙏💙
Football really is the only industry in the world in which a group of employees can just stop bothering and instead of them facing disciplinary measures, their boss gets fired. I will never get my head around it.
Dua Lipa using her
#Brits
acceptance speech to call on Johnson to give fair pay rises to NHS workers. Primetime, mainstream ITV audience - that's a powerful platform. She's 25 - slightly older than Marcus Rashford. A generation that continues to impress and lead the way. 🙌👏
Social media managers everywhere, this morning: "and you're absolutely sure you want me to do this? you know it isn't funny and it'll still be there tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that when it'll just look weird and wrong?"
Their boss:
It doesn't, though.
Liverpool can get to 69 points.
If Chelsea beat Leicester on Tuesday, CFC can get to 70 and LCFC could still get 69.
It would then be down to GD if both LFC and LCFC win next Sunday.
LFC would be relying on LCFC not getting a bigger win = not in own hands.
We just had a power cut in the middle of a Netflix show. TV off, everything off, and just the fire and a couple of candles left.
Silence for three seconds.
Then, in the darkness, the silence broken by my wife's voice. With a quiet and simple statement.
"2020 can fuck off."
What if the person who tweeted it just felt they were doing the right thing for their family? All rules are open to interpretation as of this evening, right?
I sent the tweet below as I was boarding a flight. Got off the plane to see the news that Glenn has been taken ill. Thoughts and prayers with him and hoping he pulls through - come on Glenn 💙
Happy birthday
@GlennHoddle
. Here you are in 1986 at the old
@SpursOfficial
training ground with a small boy who idolised you on his 10th birthday. Thanks for the kickabout.
This is a significant moment in the story of how athletes use their platforms. By getting out in front of this tonight, generating waves of public support, Marcus has won before we even find out what the publication has written. He's changing PR now on top of everything else 😂
Just heard
@spectator
are planning to run a story on me tomorrow about how I have benefitted commercially in the last 18 months…To clarify, I don’t need to partner with brands. I partner because I want to progress the work I do off the pitch and…(1)
Ray Winstone urging us to gamble responsibly while flashing up the odds of Llorente scoring the next goal might be the biggest oxymoron in television history.
If anyone ever suffers from imposter syndrome, a reminder that this is someone with a reputation as an unprecedented mastermind in controlling the media narrative. Never, ever doubt yourself again.
Get your news from trusted, independent sources. Understand that what you see on social media may not be true. Be vigilant about what you share. Don't contribute to misinformation on public social media or in private groups. Support good, responsible journalism wherever you can.
One day, my time will come and they will lay me down to rest. My grown-up kids are at my graveside, remembering the times we had.
Someone pushes past them, whispers at the coffin.
"Hi. I know you don't work there any more but I am having trouble getting verified on Twitter ..."
This year I grew pumpkins from seeds, for the first time.
One of the benefits of lockdown was being here to water them every night.
Today, I cut these three from the vine. My kids carved two and I made pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies. Tomorrow, pumpkin soup.
Today was fun.
Tweeting a link to a statement which is so short you could have just tweeted the statement and then the website crashing so nobody can access the statement feels oddly appropriate for this evening.
The response to this tweet has been a real-time case study in social media parody accounts, how unquestioning people are when stuff drops into their timeline, and how all of that gets filtered into traditional media. It's been fascinating to watch.
Here's the teamsheet for tonight's game and we are absolutely furious because Sydenham have fielded their players to spell out "SRFC ARE SHIT". We know this for a fact because Dane Francis, a striker, is wearing number 3. Hope the league committee throw the book at them for this.
I don't use a Peloton but the idea that the Govt would be dismissive of any form of exercise, especially after a period when people were legally restricted in how many times per day they could go outside, blows my mind. Exercise is central to health of mind and body.
Brilliant. I'm sure most people have seen the rendition of Sunshine on Leith from the 2016 Scottish Cup Final. It's amazing here as a tribute to Ron Gordon - and somehow seems more 'football' for it to be at night, under lights, with a hint of snow in the air. What an anthem.
Good stuff. Correct decision. Now let's get one for every player on every team. Have them kneel for racial equality while wearing rainbow armbands and we can all enjoy watching a vocal minority of angry middle-aged men boil in a broth of their own prejudice. It'll be awesome.
UEFA have today shared with the DFB that they have stopped the review of the rainbow captain's armband worn by
@Manuel_Neuer
.
In a letter, the armband has been assessed as a team symbol for diversity and thus for a 'good cause.'
#EURO2020
#GER
Just because I am nice, here is the same tweet but slower. And with footballs to make it easier to read.
Spurs haven't won anything yet
⚽️
They may not do so
⚽️
But if they are going to win something
⚽️
This year
⚽️
It will be in Madrid
⚽️
Because the final
⚽️
Is in
⚽️
Madrid
😁
It's been a mad night.
Amber Rudd signed as a free agent with the Patriots and Antonio Brown has resigned in order to stand as an independent MP in Hastings.
File this under the enduring fascination the middle-class media has with working class 60s London. His grandad was a rascal and his nan's sister may or may not have known the Krays? You've just described half the East End in those days, I'd imagine.
If May does resign at 10pm and it happens live on BBC Two while the national broadcaster sticks with a Cup replay between Soton and Derby on its showpiece channel it will be a fitting epitaph to her career as PM.
Yeah thanks Theres ... ooh Nathan Redmond is through one on one.
Absolutely brilliant story-telling. Well worth 5 minutes of your time. Love the way this uses different angles and footage to tell the story. Not sure why Hendrix is the soundtrack but somehow it just works!
Can we all take a moment to admire Faf de Klerk's look which is basically that of someone who stars in Neighbours for three series before coming over to Britain to knock out some Stock, Aitken and Waterman albums and then finally moving into panto as a much-loved, adopted Brit.
Big day. Proud and excited for
@7League
to become part of IMG. Our digital expertise with IMG's global scale will enable us to lead our sports industry clients through the full digital transformation that will be essential in the 2020s. Bring it on.
We’re thrilled to announce that the
@MailmanGroup
has been acquired by
@Endeavor
China.
What does this mean for us?
We’ll be integrated into the IMG Media & Events division, enhancing its range of offerings for all sports rightsholders.
Read more 👉
Not even remotely having talk of England being England, whatever.
First time in a World Cup semi-final in 28 years. Nobody expected that. Nobody. First time in any major men's semi-final in 22 years.
England fell back in love with
@England
. Get your heads up lads. Well done.
Today marks six months since I last had an alcoholic drink. Never intended to stop for this long - only meant to lose a bit of weight after the summer (World Cup = pizza, beer) but I've found I much prefer it. The older I got the more the hangovers outweighed any pleasure anyway.