With England suffering from a shortage of UEFA qualified coaches, the tweets of Nick Levett - the FA's National Development Manager for Youth - are a welcome encouragement to those keen to get out on the training ground and help nurture talent. Offering advice to those that ask for it and links to blogs about practical sessions, Levett is able to educate and inspire coaches - of all age groups.

The head of Opta's UK content might not be as famous as his colleague OptaJoe, but is well worth a follow. As fans, bloggers and journalists, we have no shortage of statistics available to us but Duncan Alexander helps find new angles on the data and communicates them succinctly to a wider audience. Likes Wycombe and natty knitted jumpers.

Oliver Kay is the chief football correspondent for The Times, but there's no paywall on his Twitter account - and he's consistently excellent for breaking news on the Premier League, Champions League and England in particular. You'll see a (£) sign alongside any links back to his newspaper's website, although Kay's tweets make a good case for subscription.

There's loads of talk about football betting on Twitter, but which tipsters can you really trust? Mark Langdon, the Racing Post's expert, has built his reputation on cogent analysis and value-spotting. Can often be found discussing odds with punters and offering his opinions.

139 - The character count of this Opta Sports tweet sent shortly after the Manchester derby in the FA Cup a few months back was, like Scholes, close to maximum perfection. Quick, focused analysis that's simple to understand, and Joe throws in the odd graphic too. Stat.

James Appell is an authority on clubs and national teams from Eastern Europe, and with Russia and Ukraine firmly established in UEFA's top 10, it's important these days to know your way from Anzhi Makhachkala to Zorya Lurhansk. James will be your guide, and he might throw in some Leeds United chat along the way too.

Like James Appell, here's another man outstanding in his own European field. We've chosen experts to represent all the top nations in the current UEFA co-efficients table, to give a clued-up continental input to our list. Mohamed Moallim delivers on the Dutch Eredivisie and is on top of all things Oranje too.

Just one season into his new role and, some would say, Gary Neville is already Britain's best football pundit. He's brought refreshing honesty and considered analysis to Sky Sports' coverage, and he's great value on Twitter (even when he's just winding up his brother). Hopefully, we'll also get the odd update when he's out at the Euros helping to coach England.

One of the team behind online content provider LiveWire Sport, and formerly at the helm of BBC Sport's text commentaries, Jonathan Stevenson is (as you might expect) most active when there's a match on. Gets understandably giddy when his beloved Nottingham Forest go goal crazy (see Tuesday, March 20 - that 7-3 win at Leeds - for the evidence).

Time zones and a lack of TV coverage make it tough to follow the Copa Libertadores from British shores, which is why Rupert Fryer's tweet summaries and updates are so useful. With links to blogs on Neymar, Riquelme and the like at SouthAmericanFootball.co.uk and elsewhere, Fryer's got the whole continent covered.

An Englishman living in Lisbon since 1994, Tom Kundert founded the PortuGOAL.net website in 2007 and it continues to go from strength to strength - much like Portuguese football, which recently moved into the top five in the UEFA co-efficients. All you need to know on the 'Big Three' (Porto, Benfica and Sporting), the rest of the Liga Zon Sagres and the national team, A Seleccao.

Perhaps most admired for his calcio contributions, Gabriele Marcotti is - like the man in his avatar, Paul Robeson - not short of an opinion on a range of issues, and he's usually up for a debate with other Twitter users. Can be seen on ESPN's Press Pass, heard on talkSPORT, and read in The Times, Sports Illustrated, Wall Street Journal etc.

Andy Brassell's articles on European football are always in demand, and he's a regular contributor to numerous podcasts and radio shows too. His tweets are full of interesting info and provide links to many fascinating stories, such as the background to colossal Champions League clashes or, for example, the intricacies of Turkey's Intercontinental Derby.

David Conn is rightly referred to as a "proper journalist" by The Guardian's Fiver newsletter whenever they link to his detailed articles on football finance, legal matters and other weighty issues. His books The Beautiful Game? and The Football Business should be required reading for any students of the modern game, and his tweets provide valuable insight away from the everyday frivolity of football.

Barcelona's bubble may have burst this season, but Spain continues to dominate on the world stage for club and country. Choosing one La Liga expert above all others for the purposes of this list was tricky, but for his informative tweets and for the links to his FourFourTwo and Football365.com articles, we've plumped for Madrid-based LaLigaLoca aka Tim Stannard.

The value of a well-connected local reporter to the fans of any football club should not be underestimated. Chris Lepkowski watches and writes about West Brom for the Birmingham Mail and his Twitter feed is an example of how supporters need and appreciate communication beyond the official line. And, of course, it's not just Albion chat either.

Manchester United is the world's most valuable football club, so it didn't seem like favouritism to us to include a blogger on our list who's an expert on the Red Devils and their complicated financial affairs, as well as being a fan. However, Andy Green often casts his impartial eye on other clubs' money matters - he's studied the numbers of Chelsea, Everton and Liverpool in recent months - and his tweets are a rich source of information too.

Dutch sports statistics company Infostrada is a major player in the facts and figures business, and boast a range of Twitter accounts. Although InfostradaLive actually covers all sports, you'll find more than enough football info on there to pique your interest.

Want to know more about the stars of tomorrow, today? Aidan R is an expert on young players, particularly those coming through the ranks at various England age groups and in club academies. Three Lions lovers should ensure they have his EnglandFootballBlog.com website bookmarked.

Henry Winter hardly needs an introduction - the Daily Telegraph football correspondent and Sunday Telegraph columnist has almost 300,000 Twitter followers, making one of the most high-profile sports journalists in social media. He acknowledges life outside the Premier League too, and regularly converses with other tweeters.

Drogba, Essien, the Toure brothers, Song, Adebayor, Cisse, Ba... African footballers continue to be major players in the Premier League, and one man who knows about all these big names, plus those emerging onto the world scene and more besides, is Ghanaian journalist Gary Al-Smith - editor of SuperSport and regular columnist with ESPN Soccernet.

Covering football in Scotland could never be considered an easy task and, particularly in recent months with the focus on Rangers' financial chaos and disciplinary matters, tough questions have had to be asked. Andy Muirhead's Scotzine site addresses the big issues north of the border and his Twitter feed helps pull together news and views from across the Scottish landscape.

Tom Williams reports on European football for AFP (Agence France Presse) but, understandably, it's for information en Anglais about Ligue 1 clubs specifically that attracts most of his Twitter followers. His live match tweets are perfectly crafted and his Football Further blog provides additional reading.

Adam Digby's Twitter bio describes his location thus: "Bradford, Turin, In Between..." His home may be in west Yorkshire, but his heart is firmly at the Juventus Arena and you can find knowledgeable articles he's written on Italian football on various websites. On Twitter, he's hugely admired for his coverage of Serie A, the Azzurri and calcio in general.

Raphael Honigstein's tweets give a German perspective on English football, as well as keeping us informed about the vibrancy and excitement of the Bundesliga. You'll find links to his Monday columns for the Guardian, his ESPN Press Pass appearances and anything else that catches his eye.

The Daily Mirror's John Cross is one of the most engaging sports journalists on Twitter, happy to converse with Arsenal fans (his main beat is London Colney and the Emirates) as well as supporters of other clubs. John is a regular contributor to the BT Life's A Pitch vodcasts, and also appears on Sky Sports' Sunday Supplement.

Of the many BBC football personalities on Twitter, Juliette Ferrington may not be the most obvious choice for this list - but we consider her among the most useful. You learn what's it like to be a reporter, tasked with attending press conferences etc. You'll read some great quotes before they appear anywhere else. And if you've ever felt the sports media is rather London-centric, it's good to know Juliette's feet are firmly placed in the north.

It took a while for Sam Wallace to get himself on Twitter, but once The Independent's football correspondent signed up, he quickly amassed a broad follower base having already established himself as one of the hardest working writers in the business.

The rest of the paper might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the Daily Mail's sports coverage is high quality - and their chief football correspondent Matt Lawton is often first to the big breaking stories. His in-depth interviews are always essential reading, and he's very affable on Twitter too.

Why have we chosen the Football League's Twitter for our list, and not the Premier League's? Because the FL follows other users, it interacts with fans and it's more fun. As the HQ for both leagues is in the same building in Gloucester Place, London, maybe they could compare notes on social media...

Always smiling (even more so when Espanyol have won), Guillem Balague has been keeping Sky Sports viewers informed about Spanish football for many years now, and has amassed over 225,000 Twitter followers - making him one of the most popular people on our list. Writes for AS and The Times.

Proving beyond doubt that you can be informative AND entertaining on social media, Iain Macintosh injects a much-needed shot of humour into most football debates - but always insight and reason too. Not the best-known UK football journalist (he mainly writes for Singapore's The New Paper), but much admired on Twitter.

Not to be confused with the tweeter in 22nd position on our list, Daily Express reporter Matt Law was the man who broke news of Theo Walcott's omission from the England World Cup 2010 squad - one of the defining Twitter football scoops. Among the best for news on the capital clubs, England and his own team Aston Villa.

So you want to be a football writer? The IBWM collective will inspire you. The tweets (from editor Jeff Livingstone) provide links to articles that delve deep into world football and its culture - and there's plenty of discussion around those stories too.

BBC Sport Online's chief football writer Phil McNulty carries himself with a lot of dignity on Twitter, which can't always be easy - giving honest opinions on the issues and incidents involving England's big clubs usually provokes some strong responses when you've got over 120,000 followers.

Representing MLS, the US and the Americas on our list, Sports Illustrated's senior writer Grant Wahl also gives a welcome stateside perspective on world football. Respected enough on Twitter to have earned a groundswell of support in his bid to oust Sepp Blatter as FIFA president last year.

YouTube videos sit snugly within the Twitter interface, and the Guardian website's deputy sport editor James Dart consistently finds the choicest offerings for your delectation. Now curating something of a best-of-YouTube museum on his own World Of Sport tumblr.

The scope of twohundredpercent.net is considerable - check out the amount of tags on the website's homepage to see all the various teams Ian King and co have written about. 200% remains at the forefront of the football blogging community, for whom Twitter is the main forum for discovering and recommending new content.

When you support a Football League club and everyone on your Twitter timeline is obsessing over Premier League primadonnas or the latest Messi milestone, where do you go? To The Seventy Two, where David Bevan monitors the lifeblood of English football. As do...

... Rob Langham and Lloyd Langman - aka The Two Unfortunates, spinning tales from across the lower leagues since June 2009. Portsmouth's peril, reminiscing about Rotherham, even defending MK Dons... all topics are tackled cleanly and fairly, but with force.

Rob Harris of the Associated Press (AP) is across all sports, but his football followers are probably best rewarded with the big breaking news, fresh angles on developing stories and Twitter connections to other journalists and media organisations.

You should have noticed by now that a little buzz goes around the football Twittersphere whenever Kieran O'Connor aka Swiss Ramble publishes a new blog post. There's no exaggeration in saying that each carries a forensic level of financial detail and for further assistance, he's available to answer your tweet queries too .

'Original thinking, informed comment, no froth, no spin' - so goes the catch line on the SportingIntelligence website, home of the SJA's Internet Sports Writer of the Year, Nick Harris. Pokes a stick at football's powerbrokers and has the suits in his sights.

'Zico and Ronaldinho' have been running football's foremost football video website for over five years, posting links to clips from YouTube and beyond in record time. If a great golazo has just been scored or someone's made a blooper, chances are you'll be alerted to it first by 101GreatGoals.

Like his colleague Grant Wahl, SI.com's soccer editor Jen Chang is based stateside but the latter concentrates more on European football matters. He shares and re-tweets any interesting info he finds with his followers, and is always looking ahead to the consquences of the big news stories.

Twitter is an ideal place to talk about transfers - either when the window's closed and everyone's speculating on future moves, or when it's open and deals are being done (especially on deadline day). For this, managerial ins and outs and other valuable nuggets of info, Duncan Castles of The Sunday Times and Abu Dhabi's The National is a must follow.

The "statistical revolution" - as WhoScored refer to it - shows no signs of abating, and their website and accompanying Twitter feed have been welcome additions to the movement. Whether offering bite-sized stat chunks in their tweets, or linking to in-depth analysis in blog post, this is number-crunching for connoisseurs.

Above, one of Guardian / Observer chief football writer Daniel Taylor's most shared tweets, but let's also consider his offerings from stoppage time in the season finale at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday - "OH MY GOD!!!!!!", "This is bedlam, utter bedlam. Never seen anything like it" and "The only way I can describe that Aguero goal was like being in a moshpit." Then follows his match report which successfully incorporates the thoughts expressed in those tweets, thus perfectly blending the two mediums.

How best to describe Michael Cox's outlook on football? He's the kid who liked to take toys apart, look at each of their components in turn and see how the mechanisms all work before putting them back together again. Taking that approach to tactics and strategies has proved to be educational, hugely successful and perfect for Twitter - in short, it's fully interactive analysis.

Back in January, the Football Association was issuing warning letters to clubs about their players' use of social media. It's not that they're anti-Twitter at Wembley; far from it. The FA are just conscious of how powerful a tool it can be. 'Think before you tweet' is a sensible maxim, and they practise it to the letter, with updates on England, FA competitions and disciplinary matters (not always involving Joey Barton), and videos from their official TV channel.

PeerIndex's Craig Hughes writes: "Who better to head up #TheFootball50 than the mother of Association Football? Our data suggests that when it comes to Football, The FA comes out on top. The most engaged audience, the highest authority in the Football topic and consistently one of the best sources of new, exclusive content on Twitter. When The FA talks, Twitter listens!"