Soccer star fined for tweet dissing club owner

Darren Bent is known for his creative ways of missing scoring opportunities.

So it is perhaps surprising that he managed to hit home with some telling verbal strikes against his club's chairman, Daniel Levy.

The only problem was that he did it on Twitter.

You see, Bent was hell-keen on leaving his club, Spurs. And in the less than free market that is English soccer, he needed to wait for the club to negotiate a transfer fee with another club, Sunderland.

So, like many a modern man, he reached for an electronic device to give full flavor to his feelings.

"Seriously getting pissed off now. Why can't anything be simple. It's so frustrating hanging round," he tweeted, according to the Mirror newspaper.

Spurs' full name is Tottenham Hotspur. The club is not in a pretty part of London.

(Credit: CC Inkiboo/Flickr)

Suddenly, rumors began to swirl that Levy might be trying to transfer Bent's skills to a club other than Sunderland.

This was more than the player's head could take. So his fingers did some talking for him.

"Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest. Do I wanna go Hull City? NO. Do I wanna go Stoke? NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland? YES. So stop f****** around Levy," he tweeted.

You will be stunned that Levy was not exactly amused by Bent's self-expression. He fined the player two weeks' salary--around $130,000--despite Bent offering a sidewalk-licking apology.

Levy has also still not expedited his transfer to Sunderland.

Perhaps the saddest part of this whole painful affair is that Bent's Twitter page--with the delightful moniker db10thetruth (10 was Bent's shirt number)--has been retired.

Twitter needs all of the honest and famous tweeters it can have. If their sincerity is to be suppressed by the malicious hand of corporate culture, what will remain of our new-found, glorious microblogging society?

I do think British Prime Minister Gordon Brown should get involved in this one.

[cvaldes1831]

I agree.

Keeley Hazel and Danielle Lloyd should tweet more.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

@cvaldes1831,

Yes, and Jordan, Peter Andre, Cristiano Ronaldo and everyone on Big Brother.

Chris

[nathan309]

why not just include all the useless people in the world with nothing to do in the first place.

[lordmorgul]

Fined two weeks @ $130,000? Other than making me depressed about making less than that much in a year with my 10 years of formal education and graduate degree... this is not newsworthy in the slightest. The guy said something disparaging about his employer and was fined for the bad press. Using twitter to get it done doesn't make this article worth writing Chris.

[chapibol]

Lionel MEssi and Barca FTW!

[stevelenihan]

It's just Spurs not "the Spurs"

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

@stevelenihan,

I know. I know. Used to go to the Lane myself. Little bit of a translation problem.

Done.

Chris

[6stringluke]

I have 2 problems with this.

Firstly, he was pulled off a plane going to China with Spurs, who were scheduled to play in a pre season tournament there, just so this transfer to Sunderland could be finalized. He was led to believe that this would be nothing more than a formality and that he would be joining up with Sunderland to continue with his pre season preparations. Since 2 other clubs got involved and Levy is suddenly intent on seeing if he can get another couple million pounds out of the deal by turning it into an auction, Bent is stuck doing nothing, and not getting in some precious pre season training in. This might affect how well he plays for the first few weeks of the season.

Secondly, other than asking his chairman to stop wasting time in a far more "sailor-like" manner, I don't see how he has been very insulting. He is experiencing a great deal of frustration after a seemingly easy transfer is now made much more complicated and he is left to wait and see. He could have gone with Spurs to China and did some training, and played a part in their 2 games to work on his own personal fitness. His reaction seems pretty appropriate to me, even if his actions aren't.

Anyways, the fine seems like rubbing salt in the wounds. Bent certainly shouldn't have twittered his frustrations away, but Levy is being an arse and Bent is only saying what many, many spurs fans have thought themselves on occasion.

[Mergatroid Mania]

I don't know why the owner of a club can fine a player for speaking his mind. Of course, this is England, not exactly the the home of freedom. I suppose they caught him because they saw him twittering on the camera they have set up in his bedroom?

[6stringluke]

The club didn't take action until the twitter account was confirmed to belong to Darren Bent. He even issued an apology. While I agree that the fine is excessive considering the circumstances, perhaps in future, you should look into getting more information before commenting.

[CleanDen]

Nor do I understand why people make a statement and end it with a question mark Mergatroid

[PhaseDMA]

The most powerful person in the UK and one of the most powerful men in the world should not get involved in this.

[sting7k]

It's probably in his contract that you cannot make statements that are detrimental to the club, like many many other sports such as the NFL, MLB, and NBA just to name a few. Ashton Kutcher is under no such contract so don't get too upset.