Social Media Changing Communication Of The Beautiful Game – Football Forced To Update, Update, Update!

Getting close to the action

There was much concern at the start of last weekend for football fans. It wasn’t only the London Riots that caused many to doubt if games would be affected at the weekend, but also men in suits who were arguing about how the game was being reported (and how quickly) on social networks. This argument has threatened my love of reading the sports pages (in print and online) as the minutes turned into hours of talks and hearsay, and of course – bad PR for the Football Association. After frantic meetings and agreements on Saturday morning, the way the game is reported has changed…and it’s worked out better for the digital lifestyles we all lead.

As reported by The Guardian on Monday morning, representatives from the Premier League and Football League along with media organisations (national papers, news and picture wires etc) were busy thrashing out an agreement hours before kickoff on Saturday to tackle the issue of social media and reporting. To set the context, the last agreement in place was decided before the 2003/2004 season – two years before Twitter was even born. Ever since its inception, the media has been using Twitter and other social media as platforms to get information rapidly out to their audiences. Reporters want to be the first to comment on the action, while fans crave the knowledge first.

Like many of you, Twitter is often my first source of information on the latest scores and dramas during a game if I cannot watch it. It’s quick and easy on the eye – a bit like watching Barcelona play if you like. Many other sports have already embraced the power of social media so it was about time that football did too. After what I’m guessing was a lot of huffing and puffing about time-delays, officials not wanting to give too much away, and journalists boycotting games and press conferences in outrage of being banned from using social media to report, what we have now is likely to be the blueprint to future football social media coverage. Well, until the next development in reporting is established anyway.

The real question is why it took them so long to catch up with the times? In other sectors, such as entertainment and lifestyle, we’ve seen social media implemented and governed – advertising being a case in point. Football coverage will benefit from the freedom and speed social media allows, while real time feedback and engagement is what media organisations want from their audiences. Content engagement is an important issue. Now it’s been given the all-clear, it’s just another reason why this season is shaping up to be a cracker.