Football Federation Australia Pushes Twitter Handle Of National Team Players

Football Federation Australia "has come up with a new way of displaying their players names on official team sheets for their international home games," according to Tom Parsons of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. Instead of the traditional name and number combination that has served clubs and countries well over the years, the FFA "introduced their squad by putting their Twitter handles on the team sheet for their 1-0 win over Costa Rica at Sydney's Allianz Stadium this week." Leaving room for supporters "to tick the boxes for the players who were in the starting XI and were on the bench, this new format certainly brings team sheets up-to-date and raises the profile of players' social media handles." Australian midfielder Tim Cahill "has the highest following in the Australian squad with 565,228 followers." Cahill "gained 422 followers in the 24 hours after the team sheet was released" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 11/20).