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Dirty Tackle - World Soccer

Dirty Tackle

Thu Jun 10 10:34am EDT

Netherlands coach bans squad from Twitter, is a genius

By Brooks Peck

Ryan Babel and Eljero Elia of the Dutch team decided to broadcast themselves playing video games in their hotel room on UStream (not showing the actual game, mind you - just them presumably playing it), because that's the kind of narcissism and uselessness the Internet inspires, and now they've gotten the whole team banned from using Twitter. Make sense? Of course not. Read on. 

Says the Independent:

Viewers of the video - in which the winger appears to insult Moroccans - reacted angrily to Elia's comments, forcing him to apologise and prompting Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk to impose the ban.

Defender Gregory van der Wiel said on his Twitter account the squad were no longer allowed to use it, and this was confirmed by Ryan Babel and Elia who both went offline.

On the video Elia and Babel are seen playing a computer game in their room in front of a webcam, with several other team members visiting them.

Elia apologised for his comments but insisted he had not intended to insult a group of people.

Elia says the comment was intended as a joke for a childhood friend, but when you invite the general public to watch you play video games on the Internet, any and all inside jokes are probably going to get misconstrued.

But how exactly did this result in a ban on Twitter and not UStream?

Van der Wiel last year learnt the hard way that Twitter comments can land you in hot water.

The defender pulled out of the Dutch squad for a friendly against Australia with concussion but said on Twitter that he had visited a concert the night the team travelled to Australia.

Given that and Bable's taste for the occasional oversharing of team business on Twitter, it starts to make sense. Even still, I think a UStream ban is far more pressing. Otherwise, Elia and Babel are free to do this again. I mean, see how long you can watch the video above before you pass out from boredom. That thing is almost 10 minutes long and it's just the "highlights"! Highlights!

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