Rio Ferdinand has defended using Twitter as the Manchester United defender is reportedly under investigation by the Football Association.
The FA are reported to have contacted Ferdinand over his re-tweeting of a comment about Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole. Ferdinand has come out in support of using the social network website and has claimed he uses abuse from rivals fans as motivation.
Ferdinand, speaking in Shanghai during United's pre-season tour, said in quotes reported by several newspapers: "Twitter is something that lets fans get a bit closer to you by letting them see you do everyday things - just giving them a glimpse of what you get up to. I treat it [Twitter] as fun. I don't take it too seriously, to be honest."
He added: "When I first started doing it, they [Ferdinand's team-mates] were all caning me, saying 'What are you doing that for?'.
"But then they see there's some benefit in doing it.
"You have Liverpool fans, Manchester City fans, obviously now Chelsea fans, who seem to follow me and come on there just to abuse me, but I'm not a**ed.
"I've said it before, but that kind of stuff is like fuel.
"You use that stuff so when you play their team, there's even a little bit more rivalry about the game, that type of thing."
Source: PA
