Rio Ferdinand has broken his silence on the racism row involving John Terry and his brother Anton, branding the former England captain the ‘biggest idiot’ and accusing both Terry and Ashley Cole of ‘betrayal’.
In an explosive new auto- biography, Ferdinand reflects on the drama that was sparked by events at Loftus Road on October 23, 2011, when Terry branded his younger brother a ‘f***ing black c***’.
While Terry was acquitted in a criminal trial, an independent Football Association tribunal found the Chelsea skipper guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand and punished him with a four-match ban and a fine of £220,000.
As Ferdinand reveals in his book, #2sides, being serialised in The Sun, the whole episode took a huge toll on his family. They were racially abused and received death threats in the form of bullets sent through the post, while his mother had to endure having the windows at her home smashed and became so ill because of the stress she had to be admitted to hospital.
Ferdinand writes of a controversy that ‘damaged football and race relations in Britain’ and for the most part he blames a player he stood alongside in central defence ‘30 or 40’ times for England.
In the same memoirs, Ferdinand reveals he would have agreed to continue to play alongside Terry in the England team had manager Roy Hodgson taken the time to ask him.Ferdinand said Terry was ‘the biggest idiot’ who ‘could have saved everyone a lot of pain by admitting immediately that he has used the words in the heat of the moment’.
After choosing not to appeal against the FA punishment, Terry did issue a public apology for the language he used. What he has never done, Ferdinand claims, is have the decency to apologise to Anton Ferdinand or his family.Had Terry apologised at the time and insisted he was ‘no racist’,Ferdinand says he and his brother would have let the matter rest.
‘I’d have told him: “I think you’re a p***k for saying it, but you’ve actually come and manned up”.
’But he now says he will no longer speak to someone he once considered a friend, insisting: ‘I find it impossible to forgive or forget the pain he put my family through.‘He just sat there and watched as my brother went through all that because of his stupidity. That was the betrayal. He tried to run away from what he had done.’
Ferdinand remains resentful of the way the situation was handled by Hodgson when he succeeded Fabio Capello as England manager shortly before the 2012 Euros.
But his book underlines how fractured a once superb England defence became because of the Terry race storm. Hodgson should have taken Ferdinand to Poland and Ukraine — certainly ahead of Martin Kelly, who was called up as a replacement for the injured Gary Cahill — but the friction between Ferdinand, Terry and Cole could have become a problem.
At the time Hodgson insisted Ferdinand was omitted from the squad for ‘footballing reasons’, but the promotion of Kelly — a Liverpool player who had made just 10 Premier League appearances — brought fresh focus on that particular statement.
Ferdinand questioned the England manager with a tweet, stating: ‘what reasons??????!!!’ Ferdinand reflects now with some frustration on Hodgson’s failure to engage with him over Terry, suggesting the actions of a colleague brought an abrupt and premature end to an international career that should have reached 100 rather than 81 caps.
‘My England career was wrecked,’ said Ferdinand. Had Hodgson asked him about Terry, Ferdinand would have told him he was still ‘happy to play for England alongside him’.
He said he would have acted professionally, recognising Terry as a player who could help his team-mates win. And he would have been right. At Euro 2012, Terry was outstanding. ‘But no one ever asked (if he would still play with Terry),’ complains Ferdinand in his book. ‘I found that pretty extraordinary because I’d let it be known. Roy Hodgson should have at least asked. But that conversation never took place!’
Ferdinand feels he ‘should have had 100 caps’. As it was, his last England appearance was against Switzerland in June 2011. He officially retired from international football in May 2013.
It appears to be with some sadness that the Terry race row destroyed his friendship with Cole.But Ferdinand was distressed to discover that Cole planned to give evidence on Terry’s behalf in the criminal trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July 2012.
It sparked an extraordinary exchange between the two players, with Ferdinand accusing Cole of an act of ‘betrayal’.
The two, Ferdinand recalls, had been friends since childhood and he was staggered to discover from Anton that Cole planned to appear in court for his club-mate Terry.
While he acknowledges the pressure Cole must have been under, Ferdinand feels the then Chelsea full-back should have asked Terry to leave him ‘out of it’ because of the impact it could have on his relationship with Rio and Anton. He also said he would have accepted Cole’s verdict had he contacted him to say Terry was innocent.
As it was, he did not hear from Cole either. So he telephoned him and to his astonishment Cole rebuked him for making the call. ‘I said, “Ash, what are you doing? My little brother’s going through hell. I’m out of order ringing you? What world are you living in”?’Terry was acquitted but the FA, as Ferdinand points out, were extremely critical of Cole in their 63-page judgement report, stating that his evidence had ‘evolved’ over time to assist Terry.
Ferdinand’s last contact with Cole came via a text exchange just before Terry’s trial. He implored Cole to ‘tell the exact truth’ or not to go at all. Cole meekly replied that he had no choice but to go. Ferdinand warned Cole that his appearance in court for Terry would mark the end of their friendship.In court Cole agreed he was a reluctant witness, admitting he was a ‘close friend’ while acknowledging he has known the Ferdinand family ‘for a long time’.
But in his role as a defence witness he also argued: ‘I think we shouldn’t be sitting here.’
In the new book, Ferdinand is also critical of Chelsea for the approach they took. In fairness to the current League leaders, they took disciplinary action against their captain on conclusion of the FA hearing.
That, however, did not satisfy Ferdinand.
‘At the time Chelsea seemed to have no thought beyond wanting to keep their captain in action,’ said Ferdinand, who no doubt noted that the FA judgement also criticised the conduct of Chelsea club secretary Dave Barnard. The independent FA commission said it had ‘very real concerns about Mr Barnard’s recollections’.
Ferdinand feels Chelsea fans failed to realise it was not his brother who reported Terry to the police but a member of the public. He also felt it important to stress that it was Chelsea’s lawyers who summoned Anton Ferdinand to court. Further to that, he remains frustrated by the FA’s decision to delay their own disciplinary hearing until afterTerry’s criminal trial. ‘They passed the buck for almost a year,’ he said. – Daily Mail