Babel’s Twitter twantrum gets £10,000 FA fine

The FA has fined Ryan Babel of Liverpool £10,000 and warned him to be more prudent in the future following the Dutch striker's angry tweet about referee Howard Webb's display when his team were beaten 1-0 by Manchester United earlier this month. Babel used Twitter to post a link to a mocked-up photo of Webb in a United shirt.

"Social network sites like Twitter must be regarded as being in the public domain," said FA chairman Roger Burden. "All participants need to be aware, in the same way as if making a public statement in other forms of media, that any comments would be transmitted to a wider audience. It is their responsibility to ensure only appropriate comments are used."

Though Babel removed the post only hours after it first appeared, along with the message in which he referred to Webb as  a "joke", thousands of his 180,000 Twitter followers (he's gained an additional 20,000 since the furore erupted) had already read his views on the referee, prompting the player to say sorry. "My apology if they take my posted picture seriously. This is just an emotional reaction after losing an important game. Sorry Howard Webb."

It's not the first time that Babel has upset the powers-that-be with his tweets. At the start of last year he used the forum to express his anger at being dropped from the Liverpool squad by the then manager Rafael Benitez.

Nor is Babel the first sportsman to have a Twitter ‘twantrum'.

Neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis, talking to the BBC, says Twitter in the hands of highly-strung sports stars often under great stress is a dangerous combination. "Sportspeople tend to be very emotional," explains Dr Lewis. "They take offence, they're very sensitive and they tend to blast off in all directions when they're in an emotional state."

One doesn't need to look far in the tweetosphere to find evidence supporting Dr Lewis's theory. Last year England batsman Kevin Pietersen vented his fury at being axed from the squad to face Pakistan in the one-day series by tweeting: "Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too.. Its [sic] a fuck up!!"

Then there was the case of Aldershot striker Marvin Morgan who reacted to being booed by sections of the crowd during a match against Hereford by tweeting later: "Like to thank the fans who booed me off the pitch. Where's that going to get you! I hope you all die".

Morgan, like Pietersen, was fined for his indiscretions. As was England cricketer Dimitri Mascarenhas who called national selector Geoff Miller "a complete knob" in a post last year, an outburst for which he also received a 14-day ban.

So with the Babel incident fresh in everyone's mind, Martin Johnson, manager of the England rugby team, has recently issued a Twitter warning to his squad ahead of next month's Six Nations. "We let our players do it [tweet]," he said. "We trust them to do the right thing. They know the penalties if they don't, or what that can do for the team... you have to understand your responsibilities as a player and if you don't you might not be an England player for very long." ·