Joey Barton, who plays for Marseille in Ligue 1, faces a suspended two-game ban over his controversial Twitter insults directed towards Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva, one month after the French football ethics committee had said it was unable to rule on the matter because of uncertainty over the translation of his remarks.

English midfielder Barton had taken to his @Joey7Barton account to launch a tirade against Silva in which he called the Brazil centre-back a "pussy" and "a overweight ladyboy".

Thiago Silva. That the same pussy thatsbeen injured all season. Another over rated Brazilian. Sort your hamstrings out FatBoy…

— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) April 2, 2013

Have to take back what I said about Thiago Silva being over rated today. Been immense tonight. Still looks like a overweight ladyboy though!

— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) April 2, 2013

Paris Foot Gay, an amateur club with a large number of gay players who campaign against homophobia in football and society as a whole, had complained to France's Professional Football League (LFP) after Barton's Twitter posts. The matter was then passed onto the CNE. PSG immediately issued a statement saying Barton's comments were "unacceptable". 

French football's ethics committee had previously said it was unable to rule on Barton's comments because they had been made in English and not French.

However his club said he had now been punished: "The National Ethics Commission has given Joey Barton a suspended two-match ban for 'incorrect sentiments' in his tweets aimed at the PSG player."

The club had sent a lawyer to the CNE meeting earlier in the day. It had previously met in mid-April when it said it was unable to judge the case.

Marseille said only the CNE could decide to remove the suspension of the ban and not the French Football League.