Ashley Cole fined £90,000 for abusive FA tweet

The Football Association on Thursday fined Ashley Cole and warned him to behave in future after he wrote a criticial tweet about the governing body related to the John Terry-Anton Ferdinand racism hearing.

“Chelsea’s Ashley Cole has been fined £90,000 (111,000 euros, $145,000) after he admitted an FA charge in relation to a Twitter comment which was improper and/or brought the game into disrepute,” the FA said in a statement on its website.

“Cole, who had requested a non-personal hearing, was also warned as to his future conduct.”

The England defender earlier this month angrily described the FA as a “bunch of tw***” after the FA cast doubt on his evidence at the hearing into claims that his team-mate John Terry racially abused QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.

The left-back deleted the post, issued an immediate apology and even said “sorry” in person to FA chairman David Bernstein. But it was not enough to prevent a disciplinary charge.

Terry was handed a four-match ban and fined £220,000 for using a racial slur against Ferdinand during Chelsea’s match with QPR in October 11 and on Thursday announced that he would not appeal the punishment.