Man United players face Twitter restrictions

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson on Friday questioned the use of Twitter as the club considers limiting what players can post on the social networking website.

Ferguson reminded his players that ''they are responsible for their actions'' on Twitter after striker Wayne Rooney this week threatened to put a user ''to sleep in 10 seconds'' after being sent abusive messages.

''We as a club are looking at it because there can be issues attached to it and we don't want that,'' Ferguson said.

Ferguson confirmed that United is looking at how best to resolve the issue.

''I don't understand it to be honest with you,'' the 69-year-old manager said of Twitter. ''I don't know why anybody can be bothered with that kind of stuff. How do you find the time to do that? There are a million things you can do in your life without that.

''Get yourself down to the library and read a book. Seriously. It is a waste of time. It seems to have a certain momentum at the moment. Everyone seems to want to do it.''

Teammate Darron Gibson closed his Twitter account after barely two hours last month when he received abuse from United fans.

Defender Rio Ferdinand, who has more than a million followers, responded to Ferguson's comments - via Twitter.

''We have not been banned from social network sites,'' he wrote. ''I think the powers that be are going to look at boundaries.''

England's Football Association issued a ''social networking clarification'' in February after then-Liverpool winger Ryan Babel became the first player to be fined by the organization over comments and images posted on Twitter criticizing referee Howard Webb.

The FA advisory said ''any comments which are deemed improper, bring the game into disrepute, or are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting may lead to disciplinary action.''