footballcircus: Social Media Whores

We like to think we're relatively cultured here at Football Circus. So this week we bring you news of crowd trouble in France, a Dane's arrest and match-fixing in Brazil. If that's not enough we also feature a certain Spanish manager's efforts to rid his German club of a mole and of course the Italian Football Story of the Week and our now regular Mario Balotelli segment. To begin though, we're going to look at the usage of social media networks by a select few footballers this weekend...

What a Bunch of Twits

The modern day footballer's propensity to use Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as a means of communication rarely fails to entertain us here at Football Circus. They use social media networks as weapons against rivals, poke fun at themselves and in many circumstances, make clowns of themselves. Following last weekend's Premier League fixtures, we were treated to a deluge of tweets, Facebook comments and Instagram photos of all natures from players.

First up with a social media post of note was Southampton's goalkeeper Artur Boruc. Boruc was at fault for gifting Arsenal the lead against his Southampton team on Saturday. His blunder led to Olivier Giroud's opening goal for the Gunners. Boruc was able to see the funny side of his error though, posting a photo of his awkward foot control along side a photo of Johann Cruyff.

Next up to the social media plate was another Polish goalkeeper involved in that same match, Arsenal's Wojciech Szczesny. Szczesny however was not reflecting on a match he had been involved in himself. Rather, he took to Twitter to mock Arsenal's North London rivals Tottenham, who on Sunday had suffered a humiliating 6-0 defeat away to Man City. The gloating Pole had the following to say on Facebook:

"Wonderful scenes at the Ethiad...".

Before the weekend came to an end Wayne Rooney wanted a piece of the social media pie and unleashed a barrage of tweets regarding Sky's analysis of his performance against Cardiff on Sunday, clearly unhappy with two individuals in particular.

Meanwhile away from the Premier League, AC Milan's Kevin Constant is one footballer you're unlikely to see tweeting any time soon. Milan's fans displayed a banner at the weekend which read:

"Constant, instead of clowning around and being arrogant, respect those who watch your embarrassing performances".

Constant clearly has not impressed the Rossoneri supporters this season and after the match was met with numerous tweets berating his performances for the side. This led the midfielder to delete his Twitter account.

Bendtner Hits, no Kicks, the Gym

Nicklas Bendtner was last week dreaming of a move to Barcelona or Real Madrid. This week he has been brought back down to earth with a bang, getting arrested after allegations were made that he and a group of friends had kicked in the doors of the gym at his apartment complex.

The Arsenal benchwarmer moved swiftly to clarify exactly what had happened, with an essay-like explaination on his Instagram account. He wrote:

"On Saturday night after our win against Southamption I went out with my family and friends for dinner. After our dinner we all wanted a night swim in my gym so we changed to shorts and brought towels down.

"As we arrived at the gym my key fob changed the colour from red (locked) to green (open) but the door remained closed.

"We thought the door was stuck so we tried to open it and it caused some damage.

"I apologise for any inconvenience for my neighbours and I have paid in full. We had no mpart in damaging anything else in the building.

"The matter is closed with the police, and my focus is on tonight's match".

Match-Fixing Allegations in Brazil

Vasco da Gama's 2-1 victory over Cruzeiro last weekend is being investigated for match-fixing, it has been reported. Vasco are currently embroiled in a relegation battle and were in dire need of the win as they lie one point off safety. Paulo Schmitt of STJD (Brazil's superior sports tribunal) has confirmed that the game will be investigated.

Television footage is refuted to have shown former Arsenal, Real Madrid and Roma midfielder Julio Baptista, now of Cruzeiro, advising opposition player Cris to "hurry up and score another goal". Baptista denies the claims.

Schmitt told Sportv:

"What we have is a claim that something abnormal could have taken place.

"Other clubs involved in the relegation battle can rest assured that we are going to act, at least opening an investigation".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9xrgVxyxPc

Pep Wants to Whack-A-Mole

Bayern Munich may be flying high under Pep Guardiola in the Bundesliga this season, but their Spanish manager is not a happy as rumours grow that he has a 'mole' in his camp who is leaking team tactics to the German media.

The mole's antics have done little to hamper Bayern's progress, with their 3-0 win over title rivals Borussia Dortmund last weekend highlighting their dominance. Nonetheless, Guardiola was incensed at the thought that one of his players maybe acting to sabotage his good work and after Bayern's win stated:

"It does not matter who it is, heads will roll. I will throw him out. He will not play under me again".

Ironically, Guardiola's comments were given to newspaper 'Bild', who themselves had published the team's tactics prior to the Dortmund match.

Bayern chariman Karl Heinz Rummenigge told Sky TV in Germany:

"We will obviously not bring in the NSA to find out who it is.

"I advise the person concerned to put an immediate stop to his activities, otherwise he will have a serious problem, not only with Pep Guardiola but with the whole club".

It would not be the first time Bayern have had to deal with such problems. Legends Franz Beckenbauer, Lothar Matthaus and Rudi Voller have all been rumoured to be 'moles' for Bild in the past.

St. Etienne Fans Not So Nice

The days of Hillsborough and Heysel scale crowd tragedies are thankfully behind us but sadly, injuries are still sustained by supporters in a handful of fixtures every year. Last weekend, Nice hosted St. Etienne at the Allianz Riviera Stadium, where the away fans threw seats at the home fans. The riotous St. Etienne fans injured nine of the travelling Nice crowd.

Ministries in France offered the following statement about the incident:

"Manuel Valls, the ministry of Interior, and Valerie Fourneyron, the sports ministry, condemn with severity the serious incidents that occurred before the Nice v St Etienne Ligue 1 game kickoff and during which nine were injured".

French League president Frederic Thiriez also warned that a "systematic ban" on away supporters may have to be enforced should a resolution to such supporter behaviour not be found.

What's Mad Mario Upto This Week?

A penalty miss against Genoa was Mr. Balotelli's first headline maker this week. The match finished 1-1, though had the penalty been converted, Milan would have gone 2-1 up. The miss certainly did not go unnoticed and AC Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani had the following to say about it: "Balotelli's missed penalty was the key. If he had scored we would have won".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pq4c2o93g4

Sunday evening saw Balo tweet 'this is the end :-)', a tweet which caused fans to go into overdrive in their attempts to deciphere its meaning. A Milan exit? Hours later though he follwed that up with another tweet, this one reading: 'Go on Milan, no matter how and forever'. Perhaps Balotelli had jumped the gun with the first tweet and had a change of heart. Whatever the meaning of the tweets, if rumours are to be believed, all is not so rosey for Mario at Milan and the media have linked him with a move to either Chelsea or Monaco in the January transfer window.

Galliani however moved quickly to quash the rumours of Balo's Milan exit on Monday, along with talk that the striker had been turning up late for training. Galliani told the press:

"I don't know anything about it. Training was at 11.30, he got there before 11. I don't know what time they were supposed to meet up, you'll have to ask the coach. Is Balotelli unhappy? He will stay, I'm 100% certain about that. He's our centre forward, it's just one of those moments".

Next on the menu for Mario was an appearance on an Italian cooking show, Buon Appetito. While on camera, Balotelli said:

"I have never cooked before in my life because my mother is so good at cooking that there was never any need for me to cook. Milan have given us a diet plan, but it is not all the players that are following it".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsfDZCxSEAk

And Mario Balotelli wasn't the only one making Mario Balotelli related headlines this week. Lazio's seventeen year old winger Mamadou Tounkara has disappointed his team's fans with his new haircut - A pretty outrageous mo-hawk style barnet with the number 45 shaved into the side of his head in tribute to none other than Balotelli.

Balo went on to face Celtic in the Champions League on Tuesday and netted the final goal in his team's 3-0 victory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0PVmJ50hi4

And Frimpong?

Hardly a surprise to regular readers of the blog, Emmanuel Frimpong has played very little football this season and seems to spend the majority of his time posting Instagram pictures. This week, he uploaded a photoshopped movie poster, entitled 'Denchfellas' (the midfielder has a clothing brand called 'Dench').

Italian Football Story of the Week

- Ancelotti Names All Time Eleven

Carlo Ancelotti seems to be in reflective mood in recent months. As we reported not so long ago, he released a book wherein he discussed the Christmas tree formation that his teams so often adopt. Now, in an interview with the Times, he has named his dream team of players that have played under him.

The Italian is currently Real Madrid manager but refrained from naming any of his current crop of stars in the dream team, most likely to ensure that he doesn't tread on any particularly sensitive toes.

Having managed Parma, Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain, Ancelotti was spoiled for choice. Only three of his fellow Italians made were named in the starting eleven, though a further three were listed as substitutes.

The team was named as follows:

Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon
Defenders: Cafu, John Terry, Thiago Silva, Paolo Maldini
Midfielders: Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo, Zinedine Zidane, Kaka
Forwards: Andriy Shevchenko, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Substitutes: Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, Didier Drogba, Filippo Inzaghi

Football Recommendation

- Case Rebelde - The very existance of this shop has gotten us rather exited at Football Circus. Visit their online shop or drop into them in Temple Bar if you're in Dublin. Their current shop window display, as seen below, is also a thing of em...wonder.

http://casarebelde.com/