An open letter to @lookalikesfball

It’s not really an open letter this, but people seem to like them as a format – so just pretend, ok?

So, the other week we got tipped off that the concept for our other Twitter account @FTBL_Likealooks had been copied by @Lookalikesfball.

I’d have presumed that it was an accident and given them the benefit of the doubt, but the subsequent tweet stealing, mass account following, Facebook-squatting – and a truly bizarre defence when confronted – have shown that this is fully intentional.

The history

We started Football Likealooks in March 2014. It was born out of game that me and Fisted Away co-founder Rob liked to play while watching football- blurting out what we think people look like if they weren’t footballers, just people. During one particularly rewarding Match of the Day, we came up with a name, found all the ones we’d already tweeted through @FistedAway and began tweeting them out under the new account.

Manuel Pellegrini looks like a medieval pope. One you'd have to kill on Assassin's Creed.

— Football Likealooks (@FTBL_Likealooks) March 12, 2014

We’ve been plugging away since then, getting though a World Cup and a whole football season. The best part has been people sending stuff to us, and retweeting them. There’s been over a thousand now. It’s created a whole new football parallel universe for me. I can’t look at Ola Toivoinen without imagining his Ibiza hit. I can’t read about Jürgen Klopp without picturing him trying to sleep with his film studies students. I worry about how Thibaut Courtois will do at parents’ evening.

The Thievery

Last Thursday, some of our followers tweeted to ask us if we’d seen that @lookalikesfball had copied our idea. By this point, they’d done roughly 20 tweets and followed nearly 2,000 accounts. They’d also made a Facebook page with the URL /footballlikealooks (since changed). Our term.

Hmm. HMMMM.

If this wasn’t suspicious enough behaviour, it turned out that they’d done one of the worst things you can do on the internet – they had copied stacks of other people’s tweets.

Tim Sherwood

https://twitter.com/conroy_bumpus/status/568157726339158016

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/642099967184793601

Jamie Vardy

https://twitter.com/AlexLane91/status/640601245108019200

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/642639084264026112

Gareth Bale

Before and after a gap year, which involves a stay in Goa. pic.twitter.com/3sF6WmzM6Z

— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) August 22, 2015

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/642260408557019136

(bonus points here for making one picture using a phone screengrab of the two pictures from @BeardedGenius’ tweet!)

Sean Dyche

https://twitter.com/StevenCarter89/status/510932252617084928

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/644115008364916736

Steve Claridge

https://twitter.com/StevenCarter89/status/531134196669231104

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/644954386582646784

(NB – Hey, is @StevenCarter89 the kingpin here? That’s two whole tweets!)

Jordan Henderson

https://twitter.com/jhrz32/status/579011394386935808

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/645200037388124160

Diego Costa

Diego Costa looks like he should be being chased by Dog the Bounty Hunter

— Craig Hughes (@hughes2403) September 20, 2015

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/645960720308400128

Ross Barkley

At least we can take heart in the fact that Ross Barkley looks like he'd have a nosebleed if he tried to do a simple sudoku. #SaintsFC

— Ed Johnson (@EdTVee) August 15, 2015

https://twitter.com/lookalikesfball/status/648566725722677249

VICTIMS OF CRIME: if one of your tweets is in the list above, here’s how to report it as stolen.

The barney

Feeling pretty irked by all this, I decided to go on the offensive:

.@lookalikesfball great #content guys! What a brilliant and innovative idea for a Twitter account.

— Football Likealooks (@FTBL_Likealooks) September 24, 2015

In case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic.

Not a peep. So I got more offensive

Hi everyone! Just want to make it super clear that @lookalikesfball is a shameless copy of this account. So you know, fuck those guys.

— Football Likealooks (@FTBL_Likealooks) September 25, 2015

Three days later – an ice age by Twitter standards – I finally got a response. And what a response it was!

@FTBL_Likealooks @GregStanley1994 By your logic, competitors aren't allowed to exist. Stop being such cry babies.

— In The Mixer (@PutItInTheMixer) September 28, 2015

Perhaps it was quoting Khruschev that did it. It’s bizarre being an adult and getting called a cry baby by someone who is also, presumably, an adult. Bizarre.

Once I’d wiped away my tiny tears, I responded in the only way I know how: talking about my ass.  Who wouldn’t?

Still, it has been heartening to see some of the regular tweeters also denouncing them: “get your own ideas…shite copy…shameless…tweet stealer”

The…conclusion?

I don’t know what I’ve learned.

I’d like to think that whoever is behind @lookalikesfball would feel suitably shamed by everything to just give it up. To whoever is running the account – dude, you’re always welcome to tweet us ideas from your own account (…and your own brain). I genuinely really liked that Martial / Mark Ronson one!

I find it head-spinning that @lookalikesfball are classing themselves as “competition”. But competition for..what, though? We don’t make any money out of this. Does a retweet make you…feel things? Does a retweet for something you stole make you feel anything?

I’m eagerly awaiting the cool, “seen-it-all-before-mate” people coming up to tell me – “hey, it’s the internet BUDDY – stuff gets stolen all the time”.

Yes! That’s true. It does! But, as it’s the internet EVERYONE can find exactly WHO you stole it from, and WHEN.

You can now report tweets to Twitter. The Fat Jew lost his tv show. There’s a joke that Joe Pasquale cannot steal. And we all know that Carlos Mencia’s dick don’t work.

The future?

We’re going to keep doing likealooks, because 1) we like it, 2) other people seem to like it, and 3) it makes watching even bad games of football more fun.

And I’m going to keep calling out plagiarism, because people should be recognised for their ideas and jokes. As we don’t make anything from this, there’s nothing to lose.

Also, I’m probably going to keep dicking around with @lookalikesfball. I’ve got Khruschev quotes and jokes about my ass for DAYS.

Man finds likeness of Alex Ferguson in a wine stain

::: FistedAway welcomes a guest post from Webbie,
who runs the original – and still the best – Football and Music :::

[TV anchor] “And finally a curiosity item from Walsall in the West Midlands where a dedicated Manchester United fan claims to have found the likeness of Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, now a director at the club, in a wine stain. We go over live to our junior reporter Brett Silverton to investigate….”

[SWITCH TO OUTSIDE BROADCAST]

[Reporter] “Daryl Nonentity is not your average consumer, not by any means. This mailroom operative is a dedicated fan who himself confesses to be an obsessive on the one subject. That subject being the football team Manchester United.

Over the years Daryl has watched every match on his vintage Sharp 24” television. (He wants to get a flatscreen TV but refuses to upgrade until Manchester United partner with another television manufacturer). He has bought every Manchester United endorsed product, from Epson fax machines to Toshiba heart monitors (!). His diet is a strict one of Man United official partner items, mostly beverages such as Smirnoff vodka, Thai beer and the occasional can of imported Kagome tomato juice.

Daryl does not look well.”

“His house, as you may have guessed is painted all in red with tins of Kansai paint, shipped in from Africa. This has got him into disputes with his neighbours and the local council though, but Daryl remains steadfast and is determined to add the Manchester United club crest on the roof sometime this summer.

Then one afternoon as he was viewing his favourite television channel… tell us what happened next Daryl.”

[Daryl] “Well since he’s retired, our glorious leader has been finding other things to do – and luckily for me that involved his new programme on MUTV called: ‘Alex Ferguson’s Chilean Wine Selections’ – So there I was, watching his show. I’ve never missed an episodes you know, I’ve bought every wine he’s mentioned. So anyway, I was pouring a glass of the 2005 vintage Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah in synchronisation with The Gaffer on the show when some of it splashed over me. I looked down and I immediately recognised the knight of the realm, the saviour of the Old Trafford, looking right at me.

It was as if he was saying to me; “Hey there Big Yin, Why d’ya go’an do that?”

I called my wife in from the Manchester United partnered Kutchenhaus fitted kitchen and shown her the new wine stain on our new Man United endorsed Velocity Fabric reclining 4-seater corner sofa.”

[Interviewer – to wife] “And what did you say when you saw that ?”

[Wife] “I told him what I always telling every bloody day. Stop eating those Paul Scholes Mister Potato savory snacks, stop going online and ordering those pissing Mamee Noodles from Malaysia AND STOP DRINKING THAT FUCKING SINGHA BEER !
Sorry. Can you bleep that ?”

[Interviewer] “No, we’re broadcasting live.”

[Daryl] (popping his head in from the living room) “MUTV ?!!”

[Interviewer] “No.”

[Wife – to husband] “Tell him about your other discoveries. Tell him about about the time when you saw Ryan Giggs in a Nando’s chicken nugget, or when you thought you saw Wayne Rooney in your poo – and that oily rag which you told me had the Phil Jones face.”

[Daryl] (looks embarrassed) “Yes well… anyway… Do you want to see this stain then… it’s on one of the seat covers…”

(Daryl looks down to sofa but the seat cushion is missing.)

“Darling ? Have you seen the cushion with the stain…?”

“Yeah it’s in the washing machine” (She replies)

(Horrified the man rushes to the kitchen and in his haste, slams into the machine door. He looks at the Hotpoint logo, but it seems to be peeling off, he grabs and pulls… another logo underneath..and it says…

[Wife] “I’m leaving yer. I’m going to live with me Mam in Bootle.”

*DOOR SLAMS*

The Afterlife of Brian

Follow @RGSOAS

‘Nobody Ever Says Fuck You’

::: FistedAway welcomes a guest post from Luke, tutting loudly at the
stray piss on football’s toilet seat over at Ruud Gullit Sitting On A Shed :::

Barry Plapp is someone you’ve probably never heard of, but if you’re a football fan you will likely be familiar with his work. In 2008 he was hired by Brian Clough’s widow Barbara to write fresh anecdotes about the formerly-witty, now-dead football management personality. Plapp has played a key role in rejuvenating interest in Clough by creating fresh stories about the forthright blowhard’s life, sustaining the image of Old Big ‘Ead and preserving the posthumous cottage industry which makes a tidy profit from Clough-centric paraphernalia such as books, mouse mats and green jumpers. He got the job after an appropriately brazen interview.

Following Balotelli departure, Gareth Barry ready to “step up and get wacky”

Follow @fistedaway

Following Mario Ballotelli’s departure to AC Milan, his erstwhile Manchester City teammate Gareth Barry has told fans not to pine after the eccentric Italian as he will soon be launching “some of the zaniest sideways passes you’ll ever see”.

Barry added that supporters “won’t know what’s hit ’em”, though later retracted the statement after becoming worried that people might think he was violent, or was suggesting that they were too stupid to know that they had been hit.

The Back Stick of It

Follow @FootieAndMusic

::: FistedAway welcomes a guest post from Webbie,
who runs the original – and still the best – Football and Music :::

[ESTABLISHING SHOT] Wide view overlooking Soho Square. The camera then slowly pans over to the FA Headquarters and starts to move in towards the front door. As we enter, we see the marbled halls. The camera takes a walk through looking left and right and there are scenes reminiscent of a gentlemen’s club. Fat suits lounging around, all smoking Cuban cigars. Finally we come up to a closed door, it is opened and we walk through to see a meeting taking place. At the head, behind a giant oak desk there are three FA execs, infront of them sits an impossibly exotic Premier League footballer and his representative/interpreter.

[Suit Number 1] “So then Mr Juniorhohio you know why you are called in here today ?”

[Interpreter turns to footballer] (In Spanish – English subtitles) “These fat pigs want to suck your polla.”

Hey everyone: Let’s Photoshop Sam Allardyce!

Follow @fistedaway

An explanation:

I am on West Ham’s mailing list, having attended a pre-season friendly between West Ham vs Roma in 2007 and never unsubscribed.

These days, the top banner of the Hammers’ emails features Sam Allardyce in a striking pose:

Just look at him. Ripe for the plucking. Why, he could be anything:

• a space rocket!
• a lampshade!
• The Monument to the Third International!

This cut-out is what we are working with:

Get involved

1) Download the source file,
2) Get photoshoppin’,
3) Email or tweet your entries at us

Entries after the jump…

“We need to be more assertive” mumbles Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky to no-one in particular

Follow @fistedaway

Following a recent run of stilted performances and poor results, Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky issued a rallying whisper to his Arsenal teammates today.

Delivering a witheringly quiet rebuke in the direction of his shoes, Rosicky asked if “the rest of the team wouldn’t mind awfully playing a teensy bit better if that isn’t too rude to ask”.

Walcott, Sturridge form new club so they can argue over who plays down the middle

Follow @fistedaway

At a hastily arranged midweek, midday press conference, in a middle-of-the-road hotel in the Midlands, Arsenal’s Theo Walcott and Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge came together to announce their plans to join forces and form their own club.

The press conference was initially delayed for an hour, with each player insisting that they both sat in the middle of the stage. Walcott and Sturridge finally agreed to sit on the same chair, a buttock each, then began informing the media of their plan by both speaking at the same time.

New advert for the Premier League is actually a terrible ‘advert for the Premier League’

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A new advert for the Premier League has received a widespread panning for being, in truth, “a terrible advert for the Premier League”. Fans and critics alike have dismissed the advert for being unrealistic, bombastic, and – worst of all – a bit silly.

The advert, which featured a soundtrack somehow combining indie-rock, dubstep and a gravel voiced Scottish man reading an unprecedentedly alliterative poem that may as well have been written by a 12-year-old, was shown for the first time at an all star gala co-hosted by Mark “Clem” Clement and Tim “44” Lovejoy.

BBC desperately trying to get MOTD team to say something career-ending on air

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A BBC insider has revealed the lengths the corporation has gone to entrap the Match of the Day team- into uttering something so heinous that they have an excuse to sack them immediately.

The Match of the Day team are known to have long-term contracts with a variety of cast-iron clauses preventing them from being moved on for otherwise career-ending misdemeanours, including traffic offences, affairs, comparing a tackle to rape or not knowing anything about Hatem Ben Arfa.