Elon Musk’s takeover of X, formerly known as Twitter, has divided opinion since he bought the website in 2022.
Now, however, a number of high-profile companies and media personalities have reached breaking point and announced their departure from the social media platform, including the Guardian, comedian Greg Davies, and now a couple of top European football clubs.
But which football clubs have announced they’re leaving X?
Which football clubs have announced they’re leaving X (formerly Twitter)? 1. St Pauli
The first major European club to announce their departure was Bundesliga side St Pauli, branding the app a “hate machine” since Musk’s takeover and citing fears that it could be used to influence the upcoming German election next year.
They confirmed in a statement that they would be leaving their existing posts up, but would cease to post further updates following the statement, revealing that they would instead be moving to Bluesky, a similar platform to X without Musk’s involvement.
The Hamburg-based club were promoted to the Bundesliga at the end of last season and are known for being a politically active, and traditionally left-leaning, club.
2. Werder Bremen
Following in their fellow German side’s footsteps just a few days later, Werder Bremen became the second major club to announce their departure from the platform.
They cited the perceived “radicalisation” of the platform in their statement, posted on the club’s website, before also noting their disapproval of the way Musk used X during the US election.
They joined St Pauli in announcing their migration to the platform Bluesky, urging their 600k followers to join them.
Other clubs are considering their position
According to a report by German outlet BILD, a number of other Bundesliga clubs, including Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Hannover 96, have confirmed they’re monitoring the situation carefully, stopping short of announcing their own departures but, critically, also not ruling it out.
Despite Musk’s takeover of the platform, X has remained the primary social media outlet for general football discussion and media, and likely accounts for a significant proportion of the app’s traffic.
A league as big as the Bundesliga migrating the majority of its communications to Bluesky would rock that boat significantly and could cause a ripple effect of its own.
But, at this stage, it remains to be seen whether clubs from any league follow the lead of the two German clubs.
