Marseille have apologised to Paris Saint-Germain and ordered their midfielder Joey Barton to end his Twitter attack on Thiago Silva, in which he likened the club's Brazilian defender to an "overweight ladyboy".
Barton originally tweeted: "Thiago Silva. That the same [Poor language removed] thats been injured all season. Another over rated Brazilian. Sort your hamstrings out FatBoy..."
The Liverpudlian was responding negatively to comments from Thiago Silva ahead of Tuesday night's game between PSG and Barcelona at the Parc des Princes, which finished 2-2.
Barton continued tweeting during the game, adding: "Have to take back what I said about Thiago Silva being over rated today. Been immense tonight. Still looks like a overweight ladyboy though!"
On Wednesday morning he wrote: "2 questions for Thiago Silva. Firstly, Why are YOU talking about ME, in your press conference before PSG v Barca? Very strange.
"Secondly, Are you Pre-Op or Post-Op? #transsexual #thiagosaladyboy.
"Baffles me, which way he's going. Is he a man changing to a woman or a woman changing to a man? Can't work it out."
Speaking to L'Equipe on Monday, Silva had said: "There is a Marseille player, I cannot remember his name, an Englishman, who has said bad things about Neymar and Brazilian football, and also about [David] Beckham and [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic.
"Because no one is talking about him, it seems it is fun for him to criticise great players for people to know he exists."