The Football Association is toughening its response to players using social media and has warned about their comments on Twitter and other social networks.

It follows Liverpool’s Ryan Babel last month being fined £10,000 for posts on Twitter featuring a mocked-up picture of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt and criticism of the official.

Babel wrote: “And they call him one of the best referees. That’s a joke.” He subsequently removed the link and wrote an apology on Twitter to Howard. The referee who been the official overseeing Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester United who won after Webb awarded a questionable penalty.

You can see why the FA are worried about all of this. When the Dutchman speaks people are listening. He has more than 200,000 followers (more than the 194,000 who follow the official LFC account) and his tweets like any celeb or sports star are closely watched by the media.

The prolific tweeter Babel later joked he would be spending a spell in “Twitter jail”. Not though according to club manager Kenny Dalglish who labelled the penalty decision “a joke”.

Babel clearly knows what he’s doing. It was the second time he has got into trouble via Twitter. Last year he was complaining about former club manager Rafa Benitez who he feared about being sent to Sunderland.

Another who came close to suffering FA action was Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere. Last week he escaped action after complaining of “inconsistent refereeing” on his Twitter account. It is these latest incidents plus some high profile former instances that have led the FA to act.

According to an FA statement read: “The FA has issued clarification to participants relating to the use of social networking sites, including, but not limited to Twitter, Facebook and internet blogs.

“Participants should be aware that comments made on such sites may be considered public comment, and that further to FA Rule E3, any comments which are deemed improper, bring the game into disrepute, or are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting may lead to disciplinary action.

“Comments which are personal in nature or could be construed as offensive, use foul language or contain direct or indirect threats aimed at other participants are likely to be considered improper.”

Players have also been told that “care should be exercised with regards to the contents of such postings” and even though they might believe their postings are only visible to a limited number of selected people they may still end up in the public domain.

Where else would they end up? While some players might not have much going on upstairs most are pretty media savvy and know that comments they make on Twitter will end up on the back pages.

Look at former Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent. He risked possible action after he attacked the Premier League club via his Twitter account as he was in the process of leaving the club for Sunderland (he’s now with Aston Villa).

Last year Manchester City football club was warned it had made a mistake in telling players not to use social networking sites. Manchester United did the same.

City said it had advised players not to set up social networking pages. It followed city rivals Manchester United, which told  fans that no players from the team maintain personal profiles on social networking websites.

In the US many sports stars use Twitter across the NFL, NHL, MBA and MLS, creating controversy. New York Yankee Nick Swisher was once accused of having his tweets sent by his publicist.

While San Francisco Giants pitcher Brian Wilson removed his account after posting apparently drunken tweets and Antonio Cromartie, star player for the San Diego Chargers, was fined $2,500 (£1,400) by the NFL for commenting about the team’s nutrition on Twitter, saying that “nasty food” was to blame for the Chargers’ poor performance.