Footballers turn heat on Elon Musk after losing Twitter Blue Check marks

Man City winger Riyad Mahrez and Twitter owner Elon Musk

Some active footballers and retired footballers on Twitter have complained about losing their verification on the social network.

Manchester City duo Riyad Mahrez and Aymeric Laporte, Fenebache striker Michy Batshuayi as well former Manchester United defender, Gary Neville have all reacted to losing their checkmarks.

Mahrez in his tweet stated that he almost lost it in some time past, hence, he is not bothered losing it this time and that he will not pay for the subscription.

"Already lost it once, not scared of not having it anymore ???????? I'm not paying for these weird ideas lol."

For Batshuayi, he labelled the exercise as weird and questioned Elon Musk.

"This is really getting weird lol wyd Elon?"

Whereas, Laporte who was surprised to see his checkmark disappear tweeted: "Damn Elon what did u do lol."

Meanwhile, Gary Neville had a lot to get off his chest, citing that the social network has been 'an odd place' since Musk took over.

"Blue ticks gone! ????. Moved to Following function over For You (so much crap being thrown at us). Twitter is an odd place since Musk has taken it on!

The blue checkmark also known as 'Legacy Verification' was given to athletes, celebrities, and other big figures on the app to avoid impersonation and easy identification.

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, embarked on a purge on Thursday, April 20, 2023, to remove all blue check marks of users who have not subscribed to Twitter Blue.

This has led to athletes, celebrities, and other prominent persons on Twitter losing their verification.

However, following the new takeover with Elon Musk in 2022, he has demanded that the verification will be on a subscription base at a fee.

Here are some tweets of complaints by footballers

Blue ticks gone! ????. Moved to Following function over For You (so much crap being thrown at us). Twitter is an odd place since Musk has taken it on!
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) April 21, 2023