Eleven months after his on-field clash with Anton Ferdinand, and having escaped justice in July, John Terry was finally found guilty of racist abuse today.
Eleven months after his on-field clash with Anton Ferdinand, and having escaped justice in July, John Terry was finally found guilty of racist abuse today.
Terry, the Chelsea defender, has been banned for four games and fined £220,000. Following his acquittal at Westminster Magistrates Court two months ago, he was charged by the Football Association with “using abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Ferdinand and which included a reference to colour and/or race” in the Chelsea-QPR match at Loftus Road in October.
As the BBC’s Dan Roan notes, though the right verdict has undoubtedly, belatedly been reached, questions will be asked of why it took so long for the FA to act, compared with the Suarez race case:
“One of the first questions many people will ask is why the Terry ban is so much less than that handed to Luis Suarez of Liverpool last year. We await the written judgement, which will no doubt explain the difference.
“This is a significant day – the end of an 11-month saga, a case that was dragged through the courts. The language, insults and abuse laid bare have made this a really uncomfortable episode for the sport.
“Terry must now live with that stigma, the ignominy of a ban. It’s not a career-ending ban, but it will be interesting to see what Chelsea do. Will they suspend him, drop him or back him? The club has a zero-tolerance policy towards racism.”
As Left Foot Forward has long reported, racism, though we’d like to think of oursleves as much more enlightened and progressive than other footballing nations, hasn’t disappeared. It may be less prominent, obvious and violent than elsewhere, but it’s still there, off the pitch, in the stands amongst some supporters, and now, we’ve learned over the past year, on the pitch as well.
Clarke Carlisle’s recent BBC documentary, “Is Football Racist?”, tackled the issue head on – with some worrying findings.
Below are clips some of the main interviews Carlisle conducted for the docu, starting with Jermaine Jenas:
And finally, most heartbreaking of all, Clarke’s father, whose own football career was killed by prejudice:
Today such blatant, pernicious racism has been all but banished from the national game, but racism still exists, in sport and in society. An England captain, an England football captain, has been found guilty of racist abuse, in 2012 – how did it ever come to this?
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8 Responses to “GUILTY: After nearly a year, Terry is finally punished for racially abusing Ferdinand”
Kramnik
1. FA has found him guilty while a criminal court has not. Are you implying FA is a bigger justice body than the criminal court.
2. Terry has the right to appeal against the verdict, so the ban is not final until then. So stop giving out your own judgments to people.
Genghis Cohen
Utterly disgusting, there is no mens rea (as was also true in the Suarez ‘case’ which the fa acknowledged in their ‘report’) ergo there is no guilt – who are the unregulated fa to throw centuries of jurisprudence out the window to sate a handful of lunatics?
treborc1
This is not a crime within the FA it’s simple abusive language, he was found guilty he was banned it would have been three weeks, he was given an extra week, if he appeals he will without doubt lose and be given an extra week which means five weeks out.
But only an idiot would think Terry did not use this language you can see it plainly.
The judgement given is in line with the FA rules.,
treborc1
Your going on about the law , the fact is he was done under the regulations of the FA, guilty of foul or abusive language. Seems the Terry fan club are running around the internet. the bloke is an ass hole of the highest caliber.
Genghis Cohen
I’ve got no time for terry – he’s a disgusting cheat (which the fa have always turned a blind eye to) but in this instance I sympathise with him.
A private, unregulated company that you can’t report to the police or take civil action against has no business going around pronouncing people ‘guilty’ of serious acts based on made up jurisprudence and certainly no business overruling the head of state.
It’s a real shame the left have chosen to sacrifice fairness and decency on the altar of political correctness over these cases.