'I fully regret my comments' - Barton apologises for Hamann Twitter row

The midfielder entered into a war of words with his former Manchester City team-mate that escalated to personal slurs, but he has now publically condemned his actions

Marseille midfielder Joey Barton has apologised to former Manchester City team-mate Dietmar Hamann for the "offensive and untrue" comments he made during an argument on Twitter.

The spat escalated on Monday when Hamann responded to Barton tweeting a rumour that team-mate Loic Remy was set to snub Newcastle for QPR, suggesting the former Rs skipper should keep out of other players' business.

But, after a series of increasingly vitriolic exchanges between the former Premier League duo, Barton initially tweeted an apology before releasing a full statement to make amends and draw a line under the events.

"On Monday evening tweets exchanged between Dietmar Hamann and I went beyond the boundaries of banter, opinion and common sense," he wrote on his personal website joeybarton.com.

"I accept that my comments were offensive, untrue and related to matters of a personal nature, of which I had no knowledge.

"I have apologised to Dietmar personally and now wish to apologise through the same social media channels that I used to make them, as well as my own website."

A number of Barton's tweets made reference to Hamann's family and personal life, for which the 30-year-old apologised, and maintains the former Liverpool midfielder is a "fantastic ambassador" for football.

He continued: "I appreciate my comments have caused Dietmar and his family some distress and I fully regret that.

"I also appreciate that my comments should not have been made, as they could have damaged Dietmar's reputation, which should remain intact as a fantastic player and ambassador for German Football, as well as the game in general.

"Dietmar and I have now agreed to draw a line under the unfortunate exchange and neither of us will be making any further comments on the subject."