Football-RSS

Sponsored links

Sponsored links

Sponsored links

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.

A number of footballers have been caught out replying to a teenage fan in a sting set up by their own club, it was revealed today.

Fulham used an online expert to pose as a 16-year-old girl who contacted its under-18 players on Facebook  - and several took the bait.

Former England and Sunderland winger Adam Johnson was convicted of child sex offences last week – having groomed his 15-year-old victim online.

The millionaire flirted with the girl on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook, before abusing her in his car.

Fulham carried out its own exercise to give younger players a ‘short, sharp, shock’ about the perils of online contact with fans two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League.

It was unrelated to Johnson’s case.

Kit Symons, who was manager until last November, told the Times: ‘Some of the young players fell for it as real. It was a short, sharp shock.

‘You can tell lads about getting caught out and they’ll think “oh they won’t catch me” and then that happens, they are caught.’ 

The players caught out will not be named and shamed but were warned by the club.  

Mr Symons said: ‘You strive to make the club a reflection on your own values and if a player did something against those values you’d feel let down.

‘There are 30 lads you are father to. You hope when they are away from the working environment that their decision-making is sound’.

While the club sees it as a positive exercise, Everton loanee Luke Garbett was one of a number of Fulham players forced to deny they were stung by the ‘fan’ after speaking to their local newspaper.

He said on Saturday: ‘The social media side is how you can connect to fans. If you abuse it, it can go horribly wrong. 

‘The fake tweets? I wasn’t anything to do with it. I haven’t been alarmed by it, and no one’s spoken to me about it.’

A club spokesman told MailOnline it had ‘nothing to do with first team, who would never be tested in this way’, and was an educational exercise for the club’s young professionals in the youth team.

‘One of the players accepted a Facebook friend request and another did the same and sent an innocent message. There was nothing untoward at all’, she said.  

Johnson exchanged 834 messages in total with his victim, having posed with her after a match and promising her a signed shirt. 

She initially contacted him on Facebook. Johnson recognized her and responded. From the start she made her age known to him, telling him that she was a Year 10 student just one month past her 15th birthday.

Undeterred, Johnson arranged to meet her on January 17 last year in a secluded car park behind a Chinese takeaway in County Durham where they talked about football, listened to the radio and he gave her a signed shirt.

13 days later, after sharing increasingly sexual messages, they met again and Johnson seduced her in his car and committed the sex crimes he has now been convicted of.

The FA has a code of conduct for social media use for players and is visiting clubs to meet players.