Wireless LANs, Football And Other Technological Jargon

We live in an internet age. If previous decades ultimately came to be almost unanimously defined by the cultural, economic and political standpoints of its people at the time (in a similar way that the 60s are defined as the age of free love, for example), then for now our generation is most certainly open to being branded the age of mass multimedia. This site is as much a testament to that as anything.

These days most everyone can cast their pebble into the vast pool that is our globalised society and have their say on all manner of topics, no matter how small the ripples they create. Cameraphones are everywhere, immortalising even the most trivial of day-to-day occurrences in the lives of millions of people, and together with wi-fi, high speed internet connections and usb ports, the world is almost literally at your fingertips. A man in Coventry could spill a pint of milk on his kitchen floor at 10.08am, and by 10.12am a small village in China could know about it, read about it, hear it accounted first hand by the culprit, watch blocky highlights of the mess created and have its people vote collectively on how best to remove milkstains from a carpet.

In his book ´A Strange Kind of Glory´, Eamon Dunphy writes that football ´reflects society at the time´ and I am inclined to agree with that analysis. As such it is not unreasonable to imagine that football would on occasions intertwine with this new age of McCommunication. You cannot be considered much of a football player these days if you do not own your own personal website offering hordes of fans your wife´s view on how to form a smoothly functioning midfield, surely?

Despite this however it is still difficult not to cringe at the recent revelation that a player plying his trade in England´s second division, The Championship, put his future career prospects and the chance to play in the Premier League in jeopardy by revealing details of his impending transfer on the social-networking website Facebook. Ashley-Paul Robinson, an 18-year-old winger who has spent five years coming through the ranks at Crystal Palace, recently wrote a message on the site announcing that he was having a trial with Fulham.

Unfortunately for him the status updates intended to fill his chums in on the latest goings-on in Ashley-Paul´s life were also unwittingly made available to more than 2.7 million users of the London network of the site meaning that, at a crucial stage of negotiations between the two clubs, a delicately poised dream move to a Premiership club was placed at risk by the following words: "Ashley-Paul is goin fulham on monday. If i pull dis off im on dis ting." This was followed by another message that read, "Ashley-Paul is travling 2 Bath With Fulham Fingers Crossed." After news of the move spread he then lamentably posted a new message saying: "Ashley-Paul has been very naughty lol!" The hierarchy at Crystal Palace did not find it so ´lol´ however. Having made his Palace debut in March 2008 against Preston North End, manager Neil Warnock was previously keen to secure Robinson on a longer contract and a new offer was on the table. This Facebook furore appears to have put paid to that, with a parting of the ways now inevitable. "We feel it's probably better that he looks elsewhere to further his career," said Warnock, news that will no doubt leave Robinson far from ´lmao´ ´lol´ or ´rofl´ing´.´

Though this particular story is quite laughable for all those not directly involved, it does highlight the growing correlation between the internet age and football. You need only look as far as Ebbsfleet United FC and the myfootballclub.co.uk experiment for evidence of this increasingly prominent link. Ebbsfleet is the club bought by the myfootballclub.co.uk community, whose 21,000 members around the globe stumped up the £35 necessary to be able to enforce a takeover, making each member a sort of mini-chairman that can, supposedly, ´pick the team´ and ´vote on club decisions´ as wide-ranging as ticket prices and stadium development.

While many keyboard fans consider the chance to sit at home and play this real life version of Championship Manager a thrill, the fantasy is shattered somewhat when the reality of the situation comes to light. In Liam Daish, Ebbsfleet already have a manager and one who just this season happened to guide them to victory at Wembley in the FA Trophy at that.

Additionally, the influx of new members (it is hard to refer to them as fans, for now) has resulted in a feeling of resentment from a vast number of the club´s real fans, the ones who were there in the days of the Isthmian League before the club became en vogue. When the club played Torquay United at Wembley in May one fan remarked that, instead of two paths up Wembley way for fans there should be three - one for Torquay, one for Ebbsfleet and one for those from myfootballclub. He makes a cutting point.

Where the relationship between football and the internet goes next is anyone´s guess. With the quite ludicrous news filtering through that UEFA are looking to rebrand the UEFA Cup and endow it with a snazzy new name, perhaps fans will be offered to vote on the new name Big Brother style. UEFA could rebrand their product under whatever name receives the most SMS votes in a 24hr period, eliminating the least popular suggestions each week. Simon Cowell could host it. That would be ´lol´ indeed.