EPL club Newcastle United has "issued their players with legal warnings that they will be in breach of contract if they use social networking sites such as Twitter to discuss team affairs," according to George Caulkin of the LONDON TIMES. Club officials "believe they are within their rights to fine and discipline their employees for public criticism of the club or for revealing news about injury or selection." Newcastle players were handed the warnings Thursday and "have been told to sign and return them." The move comes in the wake of MF Joey Barton's "recent criticism of the Newcastle hierarchy." Manager Alan Pardew is "adamant" that the "increasing prominence of Twitter is detrimental to his work and must be curbed." He said Thursday, "It is in breach of contract if you are criticising the owner, the player, anyone at the club. If they're giving out injury news, that causes us a problem. We've notified the players this morning -- they've probably seen it as another sort of dictatorial moment from us -- and we've had to issue them legally with a letter to say this is not right, it's a breach of contract and you have to understand you're going to be fined and disciplined for that" (LONDON TIMES, 8/5).
NEWS TO US: In Phoenix, Nick Piecoro notes D'Backs prospect Charles Brewer two weeks ago "excitedly tweeted his congratulations to former teammate Ryan Cook, a reliever who had been told he was getting called up" to the D'Backs. The "only problem was" that the move "hadn't been made public, but that didn't stop the news from being re-tweeted." Club officials said that the "faux pas tweets frustrated them more than angered them, and the missteps pale compared to incidents involving other teams." Piecoro notes the D'Backs "see Twitter's upside and won't discourage their players from joining." D'Backs President & CEO Derrick Hall said, "There's got to be a fine balance. I, for one, am always stressing fan interaction, to take time to talk to the fans. What better way than to talk to them globally or universally? I would hate to discourage them from using it" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 8/5).
NO JAYTALKING: In K.C., J. Brady McCollough reports Univ. of Kansas football coach Turner Gill Wednesday informed players that they "would no longer be allowed to use Twitter during the season." Gill said the team's coaches thought Twitter would "prevent us from being able to prepare our football program to move forward." Univ. of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier "also reportedly banned Twitter use" (K.C. STAR, 8/5).
