Football associations of England and Spain are prohibiting their teams players from saying anything via outlets like Twitter and Facebook during the tournament, BBC Sport says it’s learned - though The First Post had the story back in January.

As we reported last summer, tweeting sports stars have previously aggravated Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace, Australia’s cricket team, Miami Doplhins, Greenbay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. Spooked, Manchester United has already had its players remove their social profiles.

But, while the latest measures may be regarded by many as targeting social networks specifically, they are equally designed just to focus players’ minds on the task at hand - the football associations are also prohibiting players from penning newspaper columns.