YESTERDAY A GREEK athlete was expelled from the country’s Olympic team after she made a derogatory remark about African immigrants on Twitter.
Triple jumper Voula Papachristou was sent home by the Hellenic Olympic Committee after she wrote on Twitter “with so many Africans in Greece, at least the mosquitoes of West Nile will eat homemade food ”. She later apologised but the athlete is the latest sports star to be punished for remarks on Twitter. Also this week the Arsenal footballer Emmanuel Frimpong has been charged with improper conduct by the English FA after a hostile exchange with a rival Tottenham fan.
In other cases former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel was fined for tweeting a photoshopped picture of a referee implying that the official was biased while earlier this year Coventry City player Gary Deegan was suspended by the club for posting a pro-IRA slogan on Twitter. Last month in the US NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire was fined $50,000 after homophobic slurs aimed at a fan in a direct message.
So today we want to know: Do you think sports stars should be punished by sporting authorities for what they say on Twitter?
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