Fines for foolish tweets are no longer just an American sports tradition. Our former colonial rulers across the pond are playing the game, too.

The English Football Association this week slapped soccer player Rio Ferdinand with a $71,000 penalty for retweeting a racist phrase about rival player Ashley Cole. That fine came weeks after the European Tour fined English golfer James Morrison for angry tweets about the handling of a golf tournament.

Ferdinand’s retweet, published in July, referred to Cole as “choc ice,” a term that means someone is black on the outside and white on the inside. Ferdinand, who plays for Manchester United, said he understood it to mean someone is fake. “The commission decided that the comment was improper and brought the game into disrepute,” according to a statement on the league website.