World Cup 2010: England players banned from Twitter
Darren Bent apologised for a posting on Twitter in 2009
England players will not be allowed to post comments on Twitter or Facebook or write articles for newspapers during the World Cup, BBC Sport has learned.
The Football Association insists Fabio Capello's men will only offer their mid-tournament thoughts via the governing body's official website.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has also banned his players from using social networking sites during the finals.
A Spanish FA official said Del Bosque wanted "no distractions".
The European Champions, whose 23-man squad includes Liverpool striker Fernando Torres and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas, were informed of the ban when they met up at their Las Rozas training facility near Madrid on Monday.
Del Bosque told his players they were not allowed to use the sites at any of the team's pre-tournament training camps or during the finals in South Africa, which start on 11 June.
Bent laughs off Twitter incident
Since the boom in popularity of the microblogging site Twitter, several sportsmen have been in the spotlight because of various musings.
England striker Darren Bent, who is part of England's provisional 30-man World Cup squad, was forced to apologise in July 2009 after accusing Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy of disrupting his move to Sunderland.
More recently, Real Madrid's Brazilian forward Kaka said he was going to shut his wife's Twitter account after Spanish media reported she had used it to criticise the club's coach Manuel Pellegrini for not giving her husband more playing time.
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
Bookmark with:
What are these?