Earlier this week, Italian football team Inter Milan played Cagliari in the country’s national football top flight, Serie A. On paper, this sounds like just another league game, however, it was not footballing reasons that dictated the headlines from this match.
Inter seemingly made a change to their usual blue and black striped shirt that got a lot of people talking. Traditionally, players wear their surname and squad number on the back of their shirts, although modern times have seen some players opt to have their forename displayed on their shirts like Tottenham’s Dele Alli and Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk. Some players even have their nickname on the back of their jersey, with West Ham’s Javier Hernandez opting to have ‘Chicharito’ (Spanish for ‘Little Pea’) on the back of his.
Moving away from tradition and the norm, Inter prepped their dressing room with shirts for each player not displaying their names, but with their Instagram handle on the back instead. The likes of Icardi, Perisic and Handanovic were replaced by @MauroIcardi, @IvanPerisic444 and @Samir1Handanovic.
Oggi a San Siro è #InterSocialNight! 📲
Il nostro spogliatoio è stato allestito con delle maglie speciali… 🔝#InterCagliari #ForzaInter pic.twitter.com/JBOMCGa6Ls
— Inter 🏆🇮🇹 (@Inter) April 17, 2018
The purpose of the stunt was to promote all things digital and social, and the drive even had its own hashtag, #InterSocialNight. Furthermore, throughout the game, the scoreboard in the stadium regularly featured tweets and Instagram Stories from fans. It was purely a marketing drive, and the players wore their regular kits when they took to the pitch. Inter Milan won the game 4-0.
However, many fans took to the net to give their opinion on the bizarre stunt and many did not take to it too well.
https://twitter.com/SimoTarantino/status/986291647410507776
https://twitter.com/DanieI2k2/status/986308234284797952
Jesus Christ. Inter will be playing with their Twitter names on the back of their shirts tonight. Please don’t tell me this is the future of football. #InterSocialNight https://t.co/xWh6Fr7PBW
— Kit Crimes ⚽️ (@KitCrimes) April 17, 2018
But not all fans were against this, with some seeing it as a clever and original initiative.
The campaign certainly got people talking and tweeting, and probably got the players a few more followers on Instagram, so this can only be another clever, successful social media campaign, right?
We are used to seeing campaigns that get people riled up and talking online and although they may be slating the campaign, they are still talking about it. I’m sure Inter’s social media team are not bothered that some people think that having Instagram handles on the back of a shirt is ruining the game, demonstrates what’s wrong with today’s society and proves that they only care about self-promotion, as long as it got people taking and using the hashtag.
Social media is everywhere nowadays, with the majority of people using at least one form of it, so it isn’t surprising that we are integrating it into other aspects of life. Earlier this week, another football team hit the headlines with regards to social media, as Chester shared their managerial job vacancy through to Facebook.
Clearly Instagram handled shirts are not the future of the game, as it is such a minor detail that won’t affect the outcome of a match at all, but we can conclude that Inter Milan played well both on and off the pitch that night. Bravo!
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