Three footballers charged over tweets

Newcastle United's Nile Ranger, Walsall's Manny Smith and Manchester United's Federico Macheda have all received Football Association charges for bringing the game into disrepute.

The trio have been punished for comments that they made on the social networking site Twitter.

A statement on the Football Association's website read: "The charge is that the players acted in a way which was improper and/or brought the game into disrepute.

"It is further alleged that the breach included a reference to a person's or persons' sexual orientation."

The trio have until 4pm on Wednesday to respond to the charges.