Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand charged by FA over Twitter comment

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has been charged with improper conduct by the FA in relation to comments posted on his Twitter page.

The Manchester United defender has until 4pm on Thursday to respond after the FA charged him with making improper comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race.

The initial ‘choc ice’ remark about Ashley Cole came two days after the Chelsea defender gave evidence on behalf of team-mate John Terry in his race trial concerning Ferdinand’s brother Anton. Ferdinand initially responded to a tweet accusing Cole of being a ‘choc ice’ — street slang for being black on the outside and white on the inside.

Ferdinand tweeted: ‘I hear you fella! Choc ice is classic. Hahahahahaha!!’ He later deleted the tweet and claimed on Twitter that it was slang for someone being ‘fake’.

It appears that the FA have not accepted his explanation and Ferdinand has the option of a personal hearing.