Social media faux pas for Manchester United as they prematurely confirm appointment of David Moyes as manager
The Manchester United Facebook page accidentally published an announcement confirming the appointment of David Moyes as United's new manager on Thursday afternoon before his current club, Everton, had informed its own fans of his departure.The official Fifa account was among those to be caught out, quickly deleting a tweet breaking the news when it became apparent the Facebook post had been a social media oops moment. However, social media quickly picked up on the story, leaving red faces in the Manchester United press office.A short time later, Everton sent out a tweet confirming the departure of David Moyes. A club statement said Moyes had expressed a desire to join Manchester United.
Social media trail: The Facebook post and Rooney profile
OFFICIAL: Everton can confirm that David Moyes will leave the Club at the end of the season. More on evertonfc.com. #EFC
— Official Everton (@Everton) May 9, 2013It remains to be seen whether Manchester United will opt for the Hacked Defence on their awkward moment.Manchester United mistakenly confirm on club's Facebook account that David Moyes is confirmed as new manager
— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) May 9, 2013For now, you can still access the page to wish David Moyes luck in succeeding Alex Ferguson: facebook.com/manchesterunit… (via @stevenemaloney)
— Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) May 9, 2013You can't blame Man Utd.. the last time they announced a manager there was no internet.
— amar (@kendrickamar) May 9, 2013Twitter saw an explosion of tweets after the news of Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement was announced on Wednesday, with six million mentions of the story in the 24 hours following the announcement - 1.4 million in the first hour - putting the social network at the top of the conversation on Ferguson's tenure.1 - David Moyes has just changed his Facebook status from "in a relationship with Everton" to "it's complicated". Update.
— OptaJoke (@OptaJoke) May 9, 2013The peak in conversation on Twitter about SAF's resignation came at 9.34am this morning UK time. 13,000 Tweets per minute on the topic.
— Twitter Sports (@TwitterSports) May 8, 2013Meanwhile, in another Manchester United Twitter development, striker Wayne Rooney updated his Twitter bio from 'Manchester United player' to 'NikeUK athlete' following reports of his desire to leave the club.Just over 24 hours since @manutd_po confirmed on Twitter #SAF was retiring. There were 6m mentions of the story on Twitter during that time.
— Twitter Sports (@TwitterSports) May 9, 2013