By Rachel Haviland
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the soccer coaches don’t just have the traditional sex and alcohol ban for their players 
– many of 32 competing teams have been banned from using Social Media throughout the month of highly competitive matches.
For teams from England, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and Holland, Twitter is off limits. The coach of the Chilean team has banned all social networking and actually initiated an evening curfew on internet use! (Got to make sure the players get their sleep).
In the U.S., the NFL (National Football League) has similar restrictions on players during American football and there are limits for players during basketball seasons…and those players had better not get caught having someone post an update or a tweet for them!
So while the world is soccer crazy or has football fever and the Social Media world is on fire with World Cup related comments, updates and tweets, is it fair for the players themselves can’t participate? Or does it help keep them more focused? Or is it just good PR management to prevent negative fallout from comments they might post after they just lost a match….or didn’t agree with the referee’s call?
Let me know what you think. Post your comments below.
