Ashley Cole charged by FA over insulting tweet

Terry and Cole

The FA have charged Ashley Cole with misconduct following the Chelsea defender’s tweet calling the organisation “a bunch of twats”.

Cole hit out at the FA last Friday after it was claimed that his evidence in the John Terry racism trial had been changed.

Terry was fined £220,000 and hit with a four-game ban after the FA had found the Chelsea captain guilty of insulting Queen’s Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League match at Loftus Road last season.

The FA released it written reasons, and Cole’s statement supporting Terry’s version of the incident was questioned by the commission.

In response to this, Cole took to twitter and said: “Hahahahaa, well done #fa I lied did I, #BUNCHOFTWATS”.

Just hours later, Cole had removed the tweet, and realised a statement which said: “I had just finished training and saw the captions on the TV screens in the treatment rooms about what was said in the FA Commission ruling about me.

“I was really upset and tweeted my feelings in the heat of the moment. I apologise unreservedly for my comment about the FA”.

The apology wasn’t enough, as now, the FA have charged Cole, saying on their official website thefa.com: “Chelsea FC's Ashley Cole has been charged by The FA in relation to a Twitter comment which was improper and/or brought the game into disrepute.”

Cole has joined up with the current England squad for their 2014 World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Poland, but it is not yet known whether he will take part in them, as England manager Roy Hodgson may decide to leave him out.

Alan Shearer on Saturday’s Match of the Day called for Cole to be dropped from the squad, saying: “I think the FA can put a big statement out here by actually not fining him but actually banning him on Friday against San Marino. Because we’ve seen players fined £50,000, £60,000, £70,000. That’s not a deterrent to them.

“Stopping them from playing football will be a deterrent. If they do it quickly – which they haven’t done in the case, which has taken 14 months – if they do it in four to five days, I think it puts a big statement out to the rest of the players.”

Cole has until 4pm this Thursday to respond to the charge.

Meanwhile, the FA will not take any further action against Robin van Persie, Cheik Tiote or Robert Huth.

Manchester United’s Van Persie appeared to elbow Newcastle’s Yohan Cabaye, with match referee Howard Webb not seeing the incident during the game.

After seeing it on television afterwards, Webb decided that it wasn’t worthy of a sending off, therefore meaning no action will be taken against the Dutchman.

Tiote appeared to stamp on United’s Tom Cleverley, while Stoke City’s Huth was involved in a similar incident with Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, but like Van Persie, both players will not be punished.

İsmail Vedat

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