Rio Ferdinand was at the centre of another embarrassing Twitter storm after being charged by the Football Association with misconduct for making an abusive comment.

At a time when Ferdinand appears to be looking beyond his playing career with moves into the media and football administration, he has become embroiled in a row with a Twitter follower who made a remark about his club QPR needing to sign a good centre half.

Ferdinand responded on September 1 by tweeting: ‘Get ya mum in, plays the field well son! #sket.’

Queens Park Rangers defender Rio Ferdinand has been charged by the Football Association for a tweet

Ferdinand has been charged for this tweet, made on September 1, for using the slang term 'sket'

Ferdinand (right) is alleged to have 'included a reference to gender' and has been charged with misconduct

VIDEO Ferdinand to be charged by the FA

According to various dictionaries, ‘sket’ is a Caribbean term for a whore, and the FA received a number of complaints from members of the public.

A statement on the FA website said: ‘It is alleged the comment posted on his Twitter account was abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper. It is further alleged that this breach is aggravated pursuant to FA Rule E3(2) as it included a reference to gender.’

Ferdinand has until Tuesday to respond but it is not yet clear whether the 35-year-old former England captain would contest the charge.

He was previously found guilty of improper conduct and fined £45,000 by the FA for comments on Twitter when Ashley Cole was called a ‘choc ice’, hinting that the former Chelsea defender is ‘black on the outside, white on the inside’.

The defender, pictured here playing for QPR against West Ham United, has until October 21 to respond

But this is becoming a complex area for the FA when Ferdinand will be only too aware that in recent months the governing body took no action against either Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore or FA referees chief David Elleray over discrimination issues.

No action has yet been taken against Malky Mackay and Iain Moody for their comments in the Textgate scandal last month when they were accused of sending or receiving sexist, homophobic and racist texts.

That said, the FA have charged Ferdinand, despite the fact that he has been a member of FA chairman Greg Dyke’s England commission. He was even linked recently with the post of FIFA vice-president.

Ferdinand is active on social media, with 5.9million followers on his Twitter page and over 14,500 tweets

Ferdinand’s profile is huge. He has 5.9million Twitter followers and embraces social media to such an extent that he launched a chapter of his new book on Facebook.

He is also an ambassador for BT Sport — indeed he was involved in a BT Sport event with presenter Jake Humphrey in London on Tuesday night — and has worked as a pundit for the BBC.

Both BT Sport and the BBC declined to comment on Tuesday night, but a tweet from Gary Lineker was fairly representative of the wider response.