I have just heard on the local radio news, that wor Jimmy McClean has had to close his Twitter account now due to the abusive sectarian messages and death threats he has received recently, since he was included in the Republic of Ireland's final Euro squad. Apparently Martin O'Neill has fully supported him on this issue and as a Northern Ireland international himself, having played during the 70's and 80's, he must really feel for the lad. What should have been a wonderful time for player, club and country, has turned into this nightmare. What a shame for him and especially for the majority of the fantastic Irish people who will be equally hurt by this. We live in a sad world at times.
Very very sad. Pathetic cretins that have caused this should all be charged by the Police. Some lad went to prison for something he said about Muamba. These were direct threats to McClean
Whereas I may think the rules are farcical and incorrect, the lad has done nothing wrong. And he is doing nothing that many others are also doing. To be subjected to the kind of abuse he has is pathetic and I don't blame him one bit for closing his account. I've said many times if I ran a club I'd ban twitter full stop for players, having only an official club one. Reason being it is open to far too much abuse, and unfortunately the players are not smart enough to just ignore abuse, ending up the bad guy in certain circumstances because they've reacted emotionally. I've seen McClean being criticised in some quarters now for responding to the idiots. He may have been ill advised to do so but you can understand why he did. All in all twitter is quickly becoming a nightmare. The idea of players using it was to try and bring the players closer to the fans. All it seems to be doing at present is deepening the divide. I'm not a fan anyway because really don't give two ****s what Demba Ba had on his toast this morning.
heard he was taking the piss out of northern ireland for not qualifying, still ridiculous like, some sad sad people in this world
What Jimmy said in response was “Love the dogs abuse am gettin of shock N.I fans, just worry about watchin ur own country at the euros... oh wait #mybad #awkward haha.” Maybe he would have been better advised keeping a dignified silence and I am sure MON has had a word, which is why his account has now been deleted. Threats to anyone, due to sectarian bitterness and downright religious hatred is a criminal offence. I hope the police are investigating this. I too feel Twitter is not helping build bridges between fans and players any more and all clubs should 'ban' their players from using it.
See thread on GC re: social networks Jacky, my view on the subject is on there in a discussion with Ciaran (too lazy to rewrite and don't wanna derail this thread).
i think it's amazing that this made the news! ffs he closed his twitter account, it's like making a story about some kid shouting at another kid in the street.
