Unilad to stream MMA action

After streaming the Homeless World Cup earlier in the year, Unilad has signed a test deal with the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts to stream 3 matches on its 19-million-strong Facebook page.

CEO Liam Harrington is confident that the page’s young male audience will have a strong appetite for the sport, laying down a guarantee of 350,000 views for each individual preliminary fight after managing to deliver 500,000 views for the Homeless World Cup.

An unhappy #NationalPoetryDay for West Ham

West Ham this week gave a lesson in what not to do as a football club on social media if the team itself is languishing near the bottom of the table, prompting a wave of ill-feeling ably expressed in verse by the club’s Twitter followers when they called for West Ham themed submissions on #NationalPoetryDay.

@WestHamUtd Roses are red,
Payet's exciting.
In London's new stadium,
West Ham fans are fighting.#NationalPoetryDay

— Fergal O'Shea (@FergOShea) October 6, 2016

@WestHamUtd
Roses are red
Violets make sense
This rhyme is rubbish
And so's our goal difference #NationalPoetryDay

— Swissss (@Swissss) October 6, 2016

When things are dire on the pitch, sometimes it can be best to just keep your head down…

Aston Villa get into a Twitter fight with some trains

From warring exes all the way to Trump and Clinton, Twitter is full of feuds, but one of the most bizarre in recent memory was this week’s battle between Aston Villa Football Club and Virgin Trains.

Virgin made the first move with this tongue-in-cheek post:

With Roberto Di Matteo leaving, the next batch of potential #AVFC managers have just left for Birmingham New Street… pic.twitter.com/1h6RX1x2uO

— Virgin Trains (@VirginTrains) October 3, 2016

Bizarrely, Aston Villa took the bait and replied with a jibe at Virgin’s lack of punctuality.

Would our managerial candidates actually get here for interviews on time if they arrived via @VirginTrains?

— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) October 4, 2016

Virgin then came back with this stinging riposte that achieved over 17,000 retweets.

We've had more trains arrive on time in the last week than you've had wins in 12 months @AVFCOfficial https://t.co/5kspi2aYMw

— Virgin Trains (@VirginTrains) October 4, 2016

Clubs ignoring the Premier League’s hashtags

Only 5 @premierleague clubs use the 'official' hashtag for goal alerts. Missed opportunity? https://t.co/IvR4egZ4rw #digisport #smsports

— The Online Rule ⚽️ (@OnlineRule) October 5, 2016

An interesting study conducted by The Online Rule looking at the way in which Premier League teams celebrate goals on Twitter found that only 5 of the 20 that battle it out in the top flight include the Premier League’s official match hashtag in their score updates.

With the number of retweets that ecstatic fans give these updates, it certainly does seem that they are missing out on the chance for those posts to travel even further.