Gary Neville has quashed claims from social media users that he has signed up for Twitter's paid subscription service after his blue tick 'reappeared'.
The Manchester United icon was amongst a glut of high-profile people on the social networking app who had their verification badges removed by Twitter chief Elon Musk earlier this week.
Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion (£35bn) last year, warned "legacy" verified members that their blue ticks would be removed this month unless they signed up to Twitter Blue: the site's new subscription service, which provides a range of additional features, including the power to edit tweets, and a blue tick.
However, the vast majority of people who lost their verified badges earlier this week didn't seem overly concerned by the development, with several insisting that they would rather not pay a subscription fee.
After initially losing his tick, Neville shared his surprise on Sunday morning when it 'reappeared'. The Sky Sports pundit tweeted: "They gave me my blue tick back! I won the power struggle!!!"
But some users fired back and claimed that Neville's tick had only returned because he'd signed up to Twitter Blue. Responding to one user who made such a claim, Neville said: "Errrrr it did just reappear my friend" before another tweeter claimed that over one million badges had been reinstalled on the app. Cesc Fabregas, another former Premier League star, also tweeted that his tick had reappeared out of the blue on Sunday morning.
Musk's decision to remove verification badges from "legacy members", along with the wider changes he has made since acquiring the social media site, has not gone down well with several Premier League players.
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Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount announced that he was quitting the site with a heavy heart earlier this week, while Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte branded Musk a "crazy dude". His Etihad teammate Riyad Mahrez confirmed in a tweet that he would also not be signing up for Twitter Blue.
"Already lost it [verification] once, not scared of not having it anymore," Mahrez said. "I'm not paying for this weird idea lol."
Other high-profile sports stars have also taken aim at Musk in recent days. Basketball star LeBron James also refused to pay the £7.99 subscription fee for Twitter Blue, however, his blue tick is still visible after Musk "personally" intervened to pay for the service on James' behalf.
After several Twitter users were left bemused by the presence of verified badges on some accounts who had previously been adamant that they would not pay for the service, Musk revealed that he had decided to fund them himself, tweeting: "I'm paying for a few [Twitter Blue accounts] personally."
