So, now we know.
After weeks of speculation, analysis, counter-analysis and a couple of less than convincing performances on the pitch, we finally know which 23 England players will fly out to South Africa tomorrow for the 2010 World Cup.
But what should have been an opportunity for the FA to right the wrongs of previous weeks in which they've managed to lurch from one PR disaster to another, they have yet again managed to inexplicably create a fiasco out of a seemingly simple squad announcement... thanks in part to the power of social networking and a bit of salacious gossip.
We knew things wouldn't be simple as soon as we found out that Fabio Capello would be waiting on the results of Gareth Barry's fitness test before releasing the details of his squad via an official FA press release.
This proved to be error number one. When news broke this morning that Barry's test results were delayed, the anticipation amongst fans and media only grew and added fuel to an already burgeoning wave of speculation. It was at this point I decided to log on to Twitter and get real-time alerts from some of the football correspondents and news feeds I follow where credible sources announcing who was and who wasn't in the squad, were starting to emerge.
As it transpired, Capello was giving each player in the provisional 30-man squad a personal call to let them know their fate. This in itself should've started ringing alarm bells at the FA. Any agent savvy enough would know that he could make a name for himself by putting a call into a journalist and letting them know whether or not his client had made the cut.
And there we had it - from as early as 11.30am, Twitter accounts from correspondents such as BBC reporter Dan Roan (@danroan) were posting comments on the squad announcement: 'have it on good authority Gareth Barry "looks good" to go to SA after scan', closely followed by news on the squad itself - Sun Online editor Jim Munro (@jimmunro) announcing news of Leighton Baines' dreaded call from Capello before Times Northern Football Correspondent George Caulkin (@CaulkinTheTimes) proclaimed that he was 'Gutted for Darren Bent'. The shock news that Daily Express correspondent Matt Law (@MattLawExpress) revealed on Arsenal's Theo Walcott being left out of the squad was doing the rounds by midday before @jimmunro was at it again, tweeting that a certain delighted Sun columnist had been in touch to let him know that his son was going to South Africa!
Based on the various rumours and credible 'sources' flying around, I was able to successfully 'announce' via Twitter the seven players who hadn't made the England squad at around 1pm, three hours before the FA were to make their official announcement.
Even though the official FA feed (@TheFA.com) was quick to dispel the rumours and claim that the FA website would be the first place to hear confirmation on the final 23, it didn't really matter as everyone all but knew anyway.
While tomorrow's headlines will centre on Theo Walcott, set to be a bystander for the second World Cup in a row, the FA are also likely to be facing up to their own dilemma. Clearly, the respectful approach is for the manager to let each player know their individual fate, but this immediately opens the door for tit-bits of information to filter through as we saw today. The other approach of letting players find out by Teletext has also bitten the dust and is viewed nowadays as a bit heartless, particularly when there is so much at stake.
So how do the FA disseminate the real-time power of social networking? The answer is a difficult one and possibly one only of mitigation. We can't ignore Twitter and must acknowledge that the age of the embargoed announcement is probably becoming a dying art.
The main issue was the length of time that the speculation was allowed to drag on. Agreeing to release the statement earlier in the day would have prevented much of the conjecture surrounding the final announcement, which was rendered practically worthless once it did eventually emerge. The fact that members of the elite 23 such as Robert Green were allowed to conduct interviews with the likes of Sky Sports News throughout the day only served to make the FA appear even further removed from the situation and lacking control at a time when they should've been reasserting it.
All we have to wait for now is who makes the starting eleven against USA on June 12. I don't know about you, but I know who I'll be following.
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