England World Cup Squad Announced via Twitter (Sort Of)

June 1st, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

It wasn’t deliberate, but England’s 23 man World Cup squad was basically announced via Twitter today. The official squad announcement from the FA came at 4pm UK time, but news – including the big news about Theo Walcott’s exclusion – was out long before that, with various journalists using their sources and tweeting reports they’d heard of disappointed players. Which didn’t go down all that well with the FA.

The BBC’s Jonathan Stevenson wrote a running commentary in the hours preceding the official announcement, where he republished tweets from various sources. Here are the edited highlights:

1022: From cowboymartin on 606: “Here’s your first proper scoop of the day. My Mrs works at Heathrow airport and Theo Walcott has just checked in with his girlfriend. They are off to the Caribbean, NOT South Africa. That’s him out then.”

1256: Here’s where we are England squad-wise: Sky are saying Darren Bent has been left out, while the News of the World’s Neil Ashton reckons Michael Carrick is on the plane.

From [journalist] NeilAshton_NOTW on Twitter: “Relief for Carrick, he’s in England squad.”

1311: We can confirm that Theo Walcott has been omitted by Fabio Capello. Meanwhile the plot thickens below as the Northern Echo suggest Manchester City winger Adam Johnson is not in the squad either, while NOTW’s Neil Ashton is now saying Shaun Wright-Phillips has made the final 23.

From [journalist] MattLawExpress on Twitter: “Walcott out of England World Cup squad – gutted for him.”

From [journalist] Scottwilsonecho on Twitter: “Sounds like former Boro boy Adam Johnson has missed out as well. Not a good day for the north-east.”

1321: From Oliver Holt at the Mirror on Walcott: “He received a phone call from Capello this morning while he was on the golf course and told the bad news of his surprise omission.”

1334:BBC sports news correspondent Dan Roan: “People close to Theo Walcott are in shock. He was so excited about the prospect of going to South Africa.”

From [BBC's] philmcnulty on Twitter: “Informed sources round up so far. Baines, Bent, A. Johnson, Walcott out. Joe Cole, SWP, Carrick & Warnock (presumably) in.”

Massive news on the way…

From OliverKayTimes on Twitter: “Now there’s a rumour (UNCONFIRMED for now) of Ledley King OUT and Michael Dawson IN.”

1338: Seems fairly certain now that Stephen Warnock has got the nod at left-back over Leighton Baines. Meanwhile, Shaun Wright-Phillips has texted Manchester City to tell them he is in the England squad.

1359: From thefadotcom on Twitter: “Plenty of speculation about England squad, but rest assured this and TheFA.com will be the first place you hear confirmation of final 23.”

1410: Incredible isn’t it, this? Effectively we are watching the 2010 England World Cup squad being revealed on Twitter by well-informed journalists. It’s history in the making.
From NeilAshton_NOTW on Twitter: “Barry in the squad, he’s just had the good news. Feels he’s fit, could even be ready for the USA game. Says he’s 100 per cent fully fit.”

1411: BBC sports news correspondent Dan Roan says he has it on good authority that Ledley King is IN the England World Cup squad.

1415: How thick can this plot get? The News of the World’s Neil Ashton reckons Ledley King is NOT going to South Africa. Unbelievable drama.

First the Walcott news. Whether he deserved to go or not, Walcott’s exclusion is a little depressing. He was the surprise inclusion in 2006 as a 17 year old, even though he didn’t deserve to go and ultimately didn’t play. This time around he’d scored that hat-trick against Croatia in qualifying, but hasn’t done enough in recent months to secure a spot. One day he’ll maybe go to a World Cup and play, but not this time.

Second, the Twitter thing. Really bizarre that that’s how we learned the squad today. I can’t decide if it represents a massive advance in public access to information, or just the usual gossipy rumour mill gone nuclear via social media. Maybe it’s both.

Good news is that though most of the tweets about who was in and out turned out to be correct, there were two big exceptions:

1. The rumour about Ledley King missing out and Michael Dawson going was just plain wrong. So tweets from journalists are not fool proof.
2. The big news about Theo Walcott not being selected was broken not by a tweeting journalist, but by someone’s wife working at Heathrow airport and spotting the player and his girlfriend jetting off to the Caribbean this morning.

The squad was eventually announced by the FA at 4pm, and looked like this:
Goalkeepers: Robert Green, Joe Hart, David James
Defenders: Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock
Midfielders: Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips
Forwards: Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney
- More World Cup 2010 squads.

- Click yourself over to England World Cup Blog to join the discussion about Fabio Capello’s selection.