Terry claims Anton Ferdinand and brother Rio both spurned his attempts to contact them
Anton Ferdinand has hit back at John Terry, after the former Chelsea and England defender claimed he had reached out to Ferdinand in the wake of the 2011 racism case.
In an interview with The Times, Terry said he was “no racist” and claimed he had made numerous attempts to contact Anton Ferdinand – and his brother Rio. Terry alleged that these attempts were all spurned.
Now a coach with Aston Villa, Terry was speaking about the incident with Anton in 2011, and the subsequent documentary made by Ferdinand. Football, Racism and Me was released at the end of last year, and addresses the controversy which took place on October 23, 2011, when Ferdinand accused Terry of calling him a “fucking black c***”.
"We want a safer platform, not just for people with blue ticks but for society as a whole."@Anton_Ferdinand backs the social media boycott being followed by the footballing world in the fight against racist abuse. pic.twitter.com/rpYAwlswUG
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 30, 2021
Terry was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service for using racist language and cleared, and then subsequently charged by the FA, found guilty and punished with a four-game ban and £220,000 fine. A central point of Ferdinand’s film was that he asked Terry to offer some explanation, but that the Chelsea defender never got in touch.
Speaking to The Times, Aston Villa coach Terry said that it was “disappointing to read and hear that I’ve never reached out” and claimed that this was not true.
Terry said: “I tried to phone Rio and Anton on numerous occasions, literally the same night [as the game], the day after and that week after the incident.
“Then about three, four years ago I see Rio on the beach in Dubai, so I approached him and said, ‘Have you got five minutes? I’d like to talk to you.’ He was like, ‘I don’t want to talk to you, JT.’ I was prepared to address the issue.
“I tried to phone Anton, Rio and his agent, Jamie Moralee. And in the lead-up to the programme my legal team had contact with the producers with the view to communicate but they were very evasive with the content and what they were trying to achieve.
“It was a lot bigger than it should have been for me. We could have dealt with the issue. I was very keen to get that done.”
Earlier today, Anton Ferdinand responded to Terry’s claims on Twitter, stating: “I never received a call personally from JT prior to the documentary or during the process. As I stated on the doc, the door is still open to have a conversation if he’s serious about racism in football & wanting to create positive change. Call me then JT?”
Terry is still adamant that he is not racist, pointing out that he was found not guilty in the trial, before the FA then found him guilty of racism.
When asked if he was racist, Terry told The Times’ Henry Winter: “No, I’m not. Racism is unacceptable.
“It’s been ten years now, then to see the documentary and being made to look the bad guy in there… It’s done. There’s a line in the sand drawn.
“Do I regret what happened? Anton can have his opinion. You’ll have yours. My opinion is very clear, I was not guilty in the court of law which is the biggest form of our law in our country. No higher.
“I was prepared to go to the Euros [in 2012] on the basis that when found not guilty [in court] the FA would follow suit and that would be the end of it. I went to the Euros, had a fantastic tournament individually, came back, found not guilty, only to receive a phone call to say that the FA was now proceeding.”
