IN a 24-hour rolling news culture it is surprising that the world of football has found itself completely and utterly broadsided by the advent of social media.

Make no mistake about it, Twitter and the like have been a growing irritation for football’s power brokers for two seasons, although this weekend it became more than just inconvenient.

The man at the centre of the controversy is the captain of conflict himself, Joey Barton, whose weekend-long rant about the John Terry situation was investigated by Attorney General Dominic Grieve.

There won’t be any repeats of Barton’s tweets here because newspapers tend to be somewhat more cautious when it comes to matters such as the Contempt of Court Act and the possibility of prejudicing a trial.

Twitter is not so discerning and herein lies the problem for football organisations, be it the governing or sanctioning bodies or the even clubs themselves.

Barton is part of a new breed, a footballer previously best known for his past misdemeanors off the field and now best recognised for Twitter.

By means of comparison, one-cap wonder Barton has more than a million followers while his teammate and fellow one-cap man Jay Bothroyd has 70,000. Quite a discrepancy. Barton has proved to be a Tour de Force on Twitter, helping to repair a previously tarnished image by showing perspective on football and society.

“How refreshing it is to have someone like young Joseph who tells it like it is,” his supporters say.

However, it’s not so funny now and the FA are probably wondering why on earth they don’t have rules on using social media sites already.

It is understood that the FA has written to clubs warning them to ensure their players don’t get themselves into trouble with what they post, but that’s had no effect whatsoever, unsurprisingly. Defender Michael Ball has been fined £6,000 (by the FA) for recently posting homophobic comments on Twitter, and Cwmbran’s own Danny Gabbidon’s late-night rant on the site last year cost him a club fine too.

In former Liverpool man Ryan Babel we’ve already had a footballer questioning the integrity of a match official, which once again crosses the line.

Yet still, despite all these warning cases, the great and the good of the Premier League continue to Tweet like there is no tomorrow.

The FA are establishing seminars to help young players learn how to be responsible on social media, but the accidents will keep happening until a firm set of rules and regulations are put in place.

They need it. Simple as that. Social media isn’t going anywhere. I am sure many readers of this column are on Twitter – don’t forget to follow @argusoncounty or even myself @Mpearlo – but there will be an equal amount of sceptics who see Twitter as nothing more than a reflection of modern society, endless, useless debate lost in a sea of bile.

There was a time when a pundit, as in a person paid to give opinions on football, could do just that. But when Paul Merson criticised the defensive skills of Glenn Johnson, the player tweeted some vicious retaliation.

Not exactly savoury behaviour is it?

The inexcusable and disgraceful rumours about the late Gary Speed that emanated via social media are an example of just how low we can go as a society with the anonymous realm of the internet.

Footballers are never going to stoop that low, but nevertheless it is high time the FA act to keep its online house in order. Otherwise, a footballer will end up in prison or completely ruined because of something they say on Twitter. Just you wait and see.