This is the last mash up summing the week in social media and sport before the Christmas celebrations really start!  It has been a fantastic year, a sentiment I hope you share too.

2012 is going to be another year of massive change in the world of social media as we see adoption rates accelerate and new technologies spring up.  With so many massive sports events to look forward to, including the first ‘social’ Olympic Games here in London.

Anyway, back to the week that was.  Here is your weekly round up…

David Villa on YouTube straight after surgery

Barcelona and Spain striker David Villa fractured his leg playing in the World Club Championships in Tokyo, meaning he will miss at least the next 4 months which may even extend to the Euro 2012 Championships.  To show his fans how we was getting on, his team posted a video of him coming out of surgery and then him giving a message to his fans.  This was posted on his own YouTube channel.  Who needs journalists to break news when the players can do it themselves?!

Super Bowl to be streamed online in 2012

Big news for all fans of the Super Bowl.  It was announced that next years big game will be streamed online by NBC Universal on their website and via Verizons NFL mobile app.  With the tight broadcasting rights around many sports this is going to be an interesting one to see what the uptake is like.  With the BBC planning to show all the Olympic sports via red button and their website next year too, could we see the rise of the internet enabled TV?

Canadian players develop own social media policy

The coach os a world junior ice hockey team is not on Twitter, and does really too much for it. But his players do enjoy it. So when it comes to making a policy for their conduct on it why not let those who know it best decide how they should use it?  It sounds like a great plan and appears to be working well.  Could this be the way forward for social media policy making?

Arsenal Facebook – Emirates 360 Panorama

As part of the clubs 125th anniversary celebrations, they have developed a Facebook app to enable fans to take themselves and friends who went to the Arsenal v Everton game on the 10th December.  Not a new idea but one that adds something new to their page and fans always like seeing themselves in the crowd to show friends.

Michael Owen fires back on Twitter to fan banter

One of the drawbacks for any ‘name’ on Twitter is that they are open to people throwing abuse at them or trying to wind them up enough to get a response.  This time it was Michael Owen’s time to lose his cool at one fan in particular.  It did seem to catch him at a sensitive time as he was tweeting about how he was upset by the amount and type of abuse levelled at Blackburn manager Steve Keen during the game against Bolton on Tuesday night.  Sometimes a simple ‘block’ or ‘block and report spam’ is the best answer though when emotions are running high it is easily done.

Pro team to sport Twitter handles instead of names on jerseys

Another trip over the pond to see what our friends in the US are up to.  This time it is one of the National Lacrosse League teams who have made some headlines.  They have announced that for their Feb 12th game each player will have their Twitter handle in place of their name on the back of their shirt.  In the meantime this requires each player to have a Twitter account and the club will be running Twitter training sessions in the lead-up to the game.  A bit of a PR gimmick but with the traning they are heading in the right direction at least.

Social Media and Football: a Match Made in Heaven

An article from The Wall Blog telling us something that most of us know, that football and social media are a perfect match with so much potential.  It takes a brief look at footballers and social, clubs and what they are doing plus a roundup of what the future holds.  It is a subject that could go on for much longer than a couple of hundred words as it does here but still quite a nice little summary.