Ashley Cole in yet another Twitter spat

London - Ashley Cole has yet again found himself involved in a Twitter controversy after he retweeted criticism of former England captain Alan Shearer over his comments on the Chelsea defender's selection in the national team.

Shearer had called on the Football Association (FA) to order Cole's omission from Friday's World Cup qualifier against San Marino following the defender's abusive tweet about the governing body on Friday.

Cole responded by retweeting the following message: "Alan Shearer says @TheRealAC3 needs to be banned for comments. I want his opinion on bans for kicking Neil Lennon in the head. #GlassHouses".

This retweet was a reference to Shearer kicking the former Leicester City midfielder and current Celtic manager in the head in 1998.

The FA at that time decided against punishing Shearer for the incident amid fears that the then Newcastle striker would withdraw from England before that summer's World Cup.

Shearer's criticism of Cole came after the defender's tweet in response to the Independent Regulatory Commission's judgment in the John Terry racial abuse case, which was critical of Cole's reliability as a witness.

Cole described the FA as a "bunch of t****" after the reasons for the decision had been published, though he later apologised through his solicitor for the tweet.

"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," the Telegraph quoted Shearer, as saying to a British channel.

"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," he added.