A street vendor selling flags waves a South African national flag decorated with those of the countries participating in the 2010 World Cup, in the streets of Johannesburg. A number of World Cup teams have banned their players from using Twitter during the tournament but the micro-blogging service is getting in on the act with its own site for the event.

A number of World Cup teams have banned their players from using Twitter during the tournament but the micro-blogging service is getting in on the act with its own site for the event.

"We've put together a special site to capture the spirit of the World Cup and it's already pulsing with activity," co-founder Biz Stone said in a blog post.

The site, @worldcup, features a continuous stream of "Top Tweets" -- messages from players, teams and others about the tournament.

Users can also isolate messages from regular Twitter users by individual match or team although the feature appeared to be coming under attack from spam.

Twitter also published a list of suggested accounts to follow during the tournament which begins on Friday.

The Spanish and Dutch teams are among those which have banned their players from using Twitter during the .