One Direction Fans "Abuse" Piers Morgan After Twitter "War" With The Band

21 November 2012, 13:25 | Updated: 21 November 2012, 13:28

The CNN host got into an argument with the band after he criticised David Beckham.

Piers Morgan faced the wrath of One Direction's avid Twitter following yesterday when he got into a friendly dispute with the UK boy band over footballer David Beckham's playing skills.

The conflict led to the hashtag '#PiersMorganIsSmelly' trending worldwide, while Piers went on to win 11,000 new followers on his official account after exchanging barbs with band members Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Lim Payne.

"No serious top flight team would sign Beckham for football reasons any more - he should retire gracefully," Piers tweeted yesterday, causing Harry Styles to respond: "Beckham is my hero.

"Is that because he always runs in One Direction," the CNN host cheekily replied, before later adding: "Well sign him up for the group - bet he sings better than he plays now."

After One Direction's fans caught wind of the discussion they quickly began bombarding Piers with message on the social networking site, causing a worldwide trend of the journalist's name.

Check out a picture of One Direction performing on The X Factor USA earlier this month below (Credit: Getty):

"Can't believe I'm currently being sledged about Beckham by TWO members of One Direction. Boy band types clearly stick together," Piers continued, to which Harry replied: "Hiii @SimonCowell can you tell @piersmorgan to leave us alone please? He's being nasty.

"Now got roughly 25 million One Directioners abusing me - many thanks @Harry_Styles Real_Liam_Payne @Louis_Tomlinson," the CNN host added, declaring "war" on the 'Live While We're Young' singers.

Piers and One Direction continued to joke at each other about their looks for several more messages, before Liam ended the Twitter "war" with the comment: "No hard feelings stinky".

Piers has since challenged One Direction to come and settle their dispute buy appearing on his CNN show in New York City in the future if they are "brave enough".

One Direction are currently in London after performing 'Little Things' in front of the Queen for the Royal Variety Performance on Monday evening (19th November).