In bizarre news, League One side Notts County blocks Hungary from its Facebook page, only to unblock it a week later.
Notts county FC is an English football club based in Nottingham, England. Formed on 28 November 1862, Notts County is the oldest football team in the world to currently play at a professional level. They currently play in League One of The Football League, the third tier in English Football.
Last week, however, it was Notts County that was in the news, after having just signed 25-year-old striker, Bálint Bajner, from Ipswich Town.
In the aftermath of the transfer, Notts County’s Facebook page was filled with comments bearing the message, “No Bajner, no party.” Earlier, Ipswich Town’s Facebook page had received similar comments after Bajner made negative comments about the Hungarian League.
Notts County, however, made international headlines when it temporarily banned the entirety of Hungary in order to handle the barrage of such comments. Then, the club created a Facebook page specifically for Hungarians.
Jamie Dixon, head of media, said they had blocked Hungarian users because of the tone of comments.
He said: “From what we could tell there was a malicious element to the original wave of posts, and there was an attempt at spamming the site with negative connotations.We tried to police that the best we could and make it something positive. It was drastic action to be taken, but the plan was always for it to be temporary.”
However, less than a week later, Notts County did a reverse and unblocked Hungary and posted the following message: “Welcome to our several thousand new followers in Hungary, we’re delighted to have you on board and thank you for all the supportive messages yesterday; it’s great to see so much interest in the club.”
The club also sent out messages updating its Hungarian fans on shirt sales and how they could purchase them. After all these fans are vital to the club and their online presence and support of the club has only positives in return.
Unfortunately for Notts County, this is biggest headline the club will make in the foreseeable future.
