Ryan Babel was as frustrated as nearly all Liverpool supporters after Sunday's 1-0 FA Cup loss at Old Trafford, given the questionable decisions by referee Howard Webb to award Dimitar Berbatov a soft penalty kick and to give Steven Gerrard a soft red card.
Babel vented after the match by tweeting a doctored picture of Webb in a Manchester United uniform with the message "And they call him one of the best referees? That's a joke. SMH."
Shortly thereafter, he apologized for his tweet. "My apology if they take my posted pic seriously. This is just an emotional reaction after losing an important game. Sorry Howard Webb."
Just hours after the tweets, the FA responded by saying that they were investigating the incident, and they acted swiftly on Monday, charging him with improper conduct.
The charge came as somewhat of a surprise, as FA chief executive Gordon Taylor had previously downplayed the incident.
"So long as it's not vitriolic, so long as it's taken in the right way and it's a little bit of fun then we've got to be able to smile at these things," Taylor said.
"The fact they've had a penalty [against them] early on and then a man sent off they're not going to feel too pleased Liverpool about the referee but at least the lad's apologised and taken it off."
New manager Kenny Dalglish also had made light of the incident, according to the Guardian.
"Maybe I've been out of the game too long but let's see if they can find a sense of humour," he said. "He apologised straight away."
"I don't think he's clever enough technically to have drawn that up himself."
Babel has until 4 p.m. on Thursday to respond to the charge.
See the picture below.
