Ashley Cole fined record £90,000 for labelling football's governing body “bunch of twats”

Ashley Cole has been hit with a fine of £90,000 after admitting an FA charge in relation to a tweet in which he labelled football's governing body a “bunch of twats”.

The fine is understood to be the heaviest the FA have dished out for an inappropriate post on a social networking site.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was fined £45,000 for referring to Cole as a "choc-ice" after the Chelsea defender gave evidence on behalf of John Terry in his team-mate's racism trial.

Cole's tweet came after the FA published its written reasons for an independent commission finding Terry guilty of insulting Anton Ferdinand during a match between Chelsea and QPR at Loftus Road last season.

In the written reasons, Cole's statement supporting Terry's version of events was questioned by the commission.

In response, the former Arsenal defender took to Twitter. "Hahahahaa, well done #fa I lied did I, #BUNCHOFTWATS," he wrote.

Cole deleted the tweet and apologised just hours later, releasing a statement which read: "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."

Cole also apologised personally to FA chairman David Bernstein.

Despite his apology, Cole was charged, and admitted the offence. A statement on the FA's website following Cole's admission read: "Ashley Cole has admitted an FA charge in relation to a Twitter comment which was improper and/or brought the game into disrepute."

The Chelsea defender's position with the national team came into question, particularly in light of Terry's decision to retire from international football in relation to the  racism trial.

But Cole made his 99th appearance for England in yesterday's draw against Poland and can expect to join a select band of internationals to reach a century of caps when England play Sweden in November.