By Andrew Warshaw
October 5 – The John Terry racism saga burst into fresh controversy today when Terry’s England and Chelsea teamate Ashley Cole blasted the Football Association (FA) for criticising his role in the case.
As the eagerly awaited 63-page report into the independent inquiry which last week found Terry guilty of racist abuse was released, Cole (pictured top, right) used his Twitter account to hit back at suggestions in the report that there were discrepancies in statements he made in support of Terry when the former England captain was acquitted of similar charges by the courts in July.
The FA, after their own hearing, banned Terry (pictured below, left) for four months for racially abusing Queens Park Rangers’ Anton Ferdinand but on Twitter Cole, the England left back, used an expletive in response to his reliability being questioned.
Embarrassingly for Chelsea, the tweet came a few hours before Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo was giving his routine weekend pre-match press conference.
“We’ll look at the tweet and then we’ll see,” said Di Matteo.
“Apart from this, I don’t think the players are out of control.”
Shortly afterwards, Cole apologised, deleting the offending Tweet and saying he over-reacted.
“I had just finished training and saw the captions on the television screens in the treatment rooms about what was said in the FA commission ruling about me,” he said.
“I was really upset and tweeted my feelings in the heat of the moment.
“I apologise unreservedly for my comment about the FA.”
The incident between Terry and Ferdinand occurred during a Premier League game between the sides in October last year.
The written judgement, which Terry had been awaiting before deciding whether to appeal, said that his defence that he had not racially insulted Ferdinand was “improbable, implausible, contrived”.
Terry admitted using the word “black” along with highly offensive swear words during the match but claimed he had only been repeating words he thought Ferdinand had accused him of saying.
But in its full written report on the verdict, the FA’s independent regulatory commission, while making clear Terry was “not a racist”, nevertheless said it was satisfied the words were intended as an insult by Terry.
“The commission is quite satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that there is no credible basis for Mr Terry’s defence that his use of the words ‘f****** black c***’ were directed at Mr Ferdinand by way of forceful rejection and/or inquiry,” it said.
“Instead, we are quite satisfied, and find on the balance of probabilities, that the offending words were said by way of insult.
“We are able to arrive at that decision without needing to make any adverse findings against Mr Terry arising out of his decision not to give evidence.
“Accordingly, the commission finds that there is ‘clear and convincing’ evidence.”
While Terry now has 14 days to decide whether to appeal, Cole’s reaction, despite his apology, has added extra spice to an affair which shows no sign of dying down.
Terry was stripped of the England captaincy after being charged and speculation is already mounting about whether Cole’s international career will also be jeopardised.
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