What's with footballers and 'tweet' fines? The last victim was Emmanuel Frimpong, the newest prey is Man U defender, Rio Ferdinand. He has been heavily fined by according to Football Association for endorsing a racist tweet about Ashley Cole.

The original tweet was from a certain carltonEbanks, "Looks like Ashley Cole's going to be their choc ice. Then again he's always been a sell out. Shame on him."

Rio replied, ""I hear you fella! Choc ice is classic hahahahahaha!!".

The badly-conceived 'choc ice' word means someone is being black on the outside and white on the inside. The tweet came at a time when Ashley Cole appeared in court as a defence witness for team-mate John Terry, who was cleared of racially abusing Ferdinand's younger brother, Anton, in a game against QPR on 23 October last year.

The Football Association made it clear they did not feel Ferdinand was a racist but he had acted improperly and thus deserved a whooping £45,000 fine.