Ferdinand makes mockery of ‘race row’ with Telegraph interview

By: Jack | October 27th, 2011

John Terry is facing consequences of a substantial nature as the FA begin their investigation into whether or not the England and Chelsea captain racially abused Anton Ferdinand during Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to QPR last weekend. His captaincy is on the line. His reputation with Chelsea supporters such as myself is as well.

Hard news on what actually transpired Sunday afternoon has been pretty much nonexistent, so many of us were highly anticipating a word from Ferdinand on the incident. What do we get when the man finally speaks?

A farce. A fucking farce.

anton
Really?

The Telegraph was lucky enough to land an exclusive interview with Ferdinand on Wednesday, the first time the Rangers defender has spoken since the alleged abuse. If, like me, you came across the link on Twitter, you were probably quick to click it and thinking you were going to get some real answers.

Wrong.

What we get is a puff piece apparently backed by Sony. As you can see above, Ferdinand is sporting a Battlefield 3 shirt for the article’s accompanying photo. The game is mentioned throughout the story and, to take it even further, this is published at the end of the piece:

Anton Ferdinand was playing Battlefield 3, out now on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. For more information visit www.battlefield3.com/uk. For the latest news visit facebook.com/battlefield3 or follow twitter.com/battlefield3

Is this a fucking press release?

It gets better. Ferdinand actually refuses to answer any specific questions on the incident. None.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” was his terse reply. What he actually wanted to talk about was the new computer game Battlefield 3, which he was promoting in London.

Then, I must ask, why conduct the interview? I guess there’s the chance that Jonathan Liew and Jeremy Wilson showed up at some promotional event Ferdinand was attending, but, still, why publish such cookie-cutter nonsense? Oh yeah, hits. Nobody really cares about his love-in with Jason Roberts or the determination it takes for a player to play in front of 40-50,000 people. I don’t care what he thought of Rangers’ performance at Stamford Bridge. This is Anton Ferdinand, a second-rate defender on a second-rate team; the only reason I’m reading this piece of shit is for his side of the story regarding the race row. That’s it.

You don’t have anything on that? Really? Unbelievable.

Well, I am half-wrong. Not half-wrong, but maybe an eighth or so wrong. The Telegraph does manage to get something out of Ferdinand. He actually admits that he doesn’t actually remember hearing anything from Terry during the match. Wait, so you don’t even know what he said to you?

Ferdinand accepts that he did not directly hear what Terry said to him during Sunday’s match, but was sufficiently concerned by subsequent footage of the incident for QPR to request an investigation.

What you are saying, then, is that the club, under your advisement, decided to file a complaint based on video evidence, from which it’s impossible to tell what the hell Terry is saying? Talk about clutching at straws. Now I’m not saying Terry didn’t racially abuse Ferdinand; I’m also not saying he did. But if all we have to go off is the video footage, then something is severely wrong with this picture (pun intended).

So, what did we learn from this interview? Nothing. I mean other than nothing. Well:

Ferdinand waited a week to release a statement on the incident, and when he finally did what we got was quotes paid for by a lovely sponsor.
Not only has this shameless piece made a mockery of a vitally important issue, it’s undermined any credibility Ferdinand had (in my opinion).
The Telegraph had the guile to run with the idea, despite all reasons pointing to the contrary. Shocking.
I want a free copy of Battlefield 3 to compensate me for the time I wasted reading that rubbish.

Again, I don’t know if Terry is guilty or not. What I do know is that shit like this makes it look ever the more unlikely. Actually, it’s shit like this that sees legitimate complaints swept under the rug time and again. Inexcusable.

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Alterity

Footballers swear. All of them. This is politics pure and simple.
B1tching_is_an_art

What a awful article this is. So its ferdinands fault that reporters turn up to a promo gig for a game asking Anton ferdinand about something totally unrelated to the game he is there promoting. And you, Jack, you take it upon yourself to go loopy coz of some crappy peice of journalism? are you thick????? of course theyre going to put the headline up so morons like u read it, give them thier hits and get them more money as you go on to publicise thier shit article!!!!

On to the race row. Terry HAS ADMITTED he said the words 'you fucking black cunt' . TERRY ADMITTED HE SAID IT. but he said it was in a different context. saying he was asking anton ferdinand if he called him that.

anton ferdinand knew nothing about this until after the game. and the reason it was reported was because he insists there was no row about race on the pitch. now if there was no row about race on the pitch. then why is terry saying you fucking black cunt?????????

You jack are the typical thick daily star reading moron chelsea fan. Terry is a scum bag. his dads a coke dealer. his mum steals dog food. you think its really that hard to believe he called someone a black cunt???? he is a low life chav. just like yourself. toodle pips!
Jack

I wish I could make sense of this, but there's just so many capital letters and question marks.
rennie pace mr chelsea

i ask a? if a black man calls me white boy is that racialist please answer me.
TIMLOS

Remember this song, I want one moment in time.............. by Whitney Houston? Let Ferdinand enjoy his moment in time, when will it ever come again.
B.

I am not racist and support banning it from the game.

But what the fuck is wrong with "AF you know what you are "... Nothing because only he knows !
DanaBlue

I don't care if Ferdinand is black, white, yellow, brown or whatever. He's a fucking wanker anyhow. How is he allowed to play Russian roulette with another persons life and reputation based on inconclusive videos. Ferdinand himself has already admitted he didn't hear any racial abuse from JT. This is too serious an accusation to become a trial by You Tube.
Alfran52

Why people are making such an issue out of this crap is beyond me? John Terry is NOT a racialist, he has grown up with and played with thousands of black guys and counts many black guys amongst his close friends including his mentor Marcel Desailley. This was the same QPR team shagged 6 nil by Fulham recently. Another result like that and you would have seen Warnoch in a West London job centre queue last monday and he knew it. This game started on Twitter last week with that nice chap Joey Barton slagging John Terry off for screwing Bridgey's ex. How current and how original Joey. Still, we are dealing with a violent moron with previous and so no suprises there then. If the Telegraph or any other decent media agency had a really good investigitive journo on board, the true story here would be what Warnock's instructions to his team were (to save his job) in the week leading up to the game? Obviously to dive and cheat and pull the wool over the referees eyes, that goes without saying and was clear for all to see. But were there further instructions from the QPR management to wind certain Chelsea players up, starting with the Barton Tweet? Did the non existant 'racial row' just get out of hand to the extent that meetings were held at Loftus Road and players interviewed by the club as the FA have now got involved? In the meantime, QPR have their undeserved 3 points, Warnock has a job for a while longer, the story and complaints over the useless performance of the FA's own Chris Foy have been deflected, so job done.
We will next hear (when things have moved on and died down after this weekends games) that the FA are dismissing this due to a lack of evidance. QPR will STILL have their undeserved 3 points, Chelsea will have been unfairly fined having fucked up another chance to overtake United, the useless Foy will still be officiating and Warnoch still hanging onto his precarious job. People, please see this for what it is. It is NOTHING to do with RACISM in sport as so many people would love it to be about, it is to do with CHEATING and poor refereeing, no more no less. The REAL story lies elsewhere....
Thomas Hoppe

The promotional interview was no no doubt scheduled well in advance of the events at Loftus Road. I would assume Anton is being paid for the interview and promotion as well so why would he want to let a situation he is not responsible for take money out of his pocket?
Denny

Agreed, poor form by all parties involved in this one. And it does nothing to actually help issues of racism on the field.

Though really I'd be OK if we all just took this as a precedent to never pay attention to anything this Ferdinand ever says or does again.