Cole accepts FA's misconduct charge

LONDON (AP)

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England defender Ashley Cole has accepted a charge of misconduct for insulting the Football Association in an offensive Twitter post.

Cole admitted bringing the game into disrepute when he reacted angrily last Friday to an FA commission questioning the evidence he gave in defending teammate John Terry against a charge of racially abusing an opponent.

However, the Chelsea left back escaped a playing ban from England for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers against San Marino on Friday and Poland on Tuesday.

Cole has requested a non-personal hearing at a date to be set.

He has already issued an apology through his lawyers and deleted the tweet, which read: ''Hahahahaa, well done (hash)fa I lied did I,'' followed by a vulgar expression.

Chelsea is also set to fine Cole, with manager Roberto Di Matteo saying the club has launched disciplinary action over the tweet.

Cole is currently on national-team duty with England. If he plays in both qualifiers, he will become the sixth player to make 100 appearances for England.

He backed up Terry's defense that a racial slur toward Anton Ferdinand in a Premier League match in October last year was only used to counter an accusation of racism Terry claimed Ferdinand was leveling at him.

Cole told Terry's criminal trial in July that he believed he heard Ferdinand use the word ''black'' during the confrontation - something the QPR player denied saying. Terry was cleared of the criminal charges but found guilty by the FA commission.

In its written judgment released Friday, the commission said Cole did not mention the word ''black'' in the initial interview with them after the match and accused him of evolving his evidence.

He is the second player to face an FA charge for tweeting about Terry's racism case. Rio Ferdinand was previously fined 45,000 pounds (then $71,000) after being found guilty of referencing ethic origin and race when he re-tweeted a user's comment that referred to Cole as a ''choc ice,'' a slang term perceived as meaning black on the outside and white on the inside.