As you may well have heard, thousands of A-list celebrities, sportspeople and other notable figures have been forced to surrender their Twitter verified status this week after the "blue tick" mark was removed — unless it's paid for.

But while Real Madrid have paid top dollar to show their stars' accounts are genuine, Barcelona have shunned the new pay-for-a-tick scheme.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has revamped the site's verified status, and those who are unwilling to pay his new $8-a-month subscription fee will now have an account just like any regular user on the platform.

Plenty of high-profile footballers have already seen their ticks disappear. However others have maintained their blue tick stature, at least for the time being — though not necessarily paying for it themselves.

While everybody from Bill Gates to Kim Kardashian to the pope had their ticks taken away as part of the sitewide cull, a slightly odd turn of events saw three celebrities — all of whom had been vocal in their criticism of the Twitter Blue scheme — get their subscriptions paid for by Musk himself.

The most prominent example is NBA superstar LeBron James, who previously greeted news of an imminent subscription fee by announcing to his 52 million followers that he had zero intention of stumping up $8 every month to keep his tick.