By Paul Nicholson
April 1 – With fans locked out and club revenues locked down, social media has become increasingly important to the commercial infrastructure of clubs, according to KPMG Football Benchmark analysis.
March 29 – Former French international and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has quit social media until the various platforms start tackling racism more effectively.
March 5 – Social media giant Facebook has not renewed its contract to stream the Champions League in Latin America and Spain’s La Liga in India.
February 18 – Ligue 1’s AS Monaco will become the first French club to launch on Japan’s Line social media platform when the club face Paris Saint-Germain this Sunday.
February 11 – English football bodies have joined forces to send an open letter to Facebook and Twitter demanding action amid increased levels of abuse aimed at high-profile players and officials on social media.
February 11 – Short-form mobile video app TikTok has signed an official partnership with UEFA for the rescheduled Euro 2020 Championship that kicks off this summer.
February 8 – The four Premier League clubs from Manchester and Liverpool have joined forces to condemn the online racial abuse suffered by players in recent weeks.
February 4 – The British government has threatened social media companies with fines which could amount to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse of footballers on their platforms.
January 18 – English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur have launched a new Twitter account in South Korea to further engage its growing fanbase in the homeland of the club’s star forward and Korean captain, Heung-Min Son.
January 7 – Social media numbers often look astronomic with European clubs in particular selling marketing packages based on millions of followers, likes and interactions. But how good are these numbers?
November 9 – Having debuted on social media platform TikTok last week, Manchester United have rapidly followed up with a launch on Douyin, China’s leading destination for short-form mobile video content.
October 30 – Manchester United have launched a TikTok channel saying that it pioneer the use of Augmented Reality in the creation of new channel-excusive content.
September 11 – Barcelona have become the first football club to break the 10 million YouTube subscriber mark. The NBA (14.7million) is the only sports channel that has more followers.
April 15 – Arsenal has opened an official account on Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok, the world’s fastest-growing social media platform.
January 20 – Barcelona are the most popular club online in China, the Premier League is most influential competition and Cristiano Ronaldo is still the player that excites Chinese more than any other, according to the latest Red Card Report from Mailman, published last week, which ranks online performance in the country.