London, Aug. 8(ANI): The Football Association (FA) has sent its representatives to 60 top flight English clubs in order to educate them about rules related to the use of social media sites, especially Twitter, anti-doping and gambling.

Even though the FA's disciplinary department has no major rule changes to clarify with players on the eve of the new season, many clubs were keen for representatives of the governing body to come in and talk about certain issues, particularly on what players can and cannot say on social media networks.

In a series of voluntary meetings, the FA pointed out to players that banter on Twitter was tolerable but that tweets relating to race, faith, disability or sexual orientation risked a charge.

One player was suspended for 70 days for an offensive tweet, while another player was punished for tweeting an offensive comment about a referee.

Arsenal's Emmanuel Frimpong was fined for an offensive tweet about a Tottenham fan, The Telegraph reports.

The FA told players that the onus for their accounts completely lies on them, so no blame could be transferred to agents if the site was run for them.

If players did make offensive tweets, they were advised to delete them and to apologize immediately, actions that would be taken into consideration when charged.

The FA reminded players that even a retweet implies endorsement, an issue central to the governing body's decision to charge Rio Ferdinand over retweeting a choc-ice comment about Ashley Cole. (ANI)