Rio denies FA charge
Rio Ferdinand has requested a personal hearing
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has denied a Football Association charge of improper conduct following comments he made on Twitter at the end of the John Terry trial.
In the aftermath of last month's trial, when Terry was acquitted of racially abusing Ferdinand's brother, Anton, The United defender responded to a Tweet that characterised Chelsea defender Ashley Cole, who was a defence witness, as a "choc-ice".
The term is is commonly understood to mean "black on the outside, white on the inside", and was a reference to Cole's testimony in court, in which he said he never heard Terry make a racist remark to Ferdinand during the match in question at Loftus Road in October.
Ferdinand was charged on Monday and had until 4pm on Thursday to respond to the FA.
A statement issued on the FA's website, www.thefa.com, read: "Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand has today denied an FA charge of improper conduct in relation to comments posted on Twitter.
"The allegation is that the player acted in a way which was improper and/or brought the game into disrepute by making comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race. The player has requested a personal hearing."
The FA must now arrange a hearing date knowing, with the new Premier League campaign due to begin on August 18, the matter could easily spill into another season - 10 months after the initial altercation at Loftus Road.
Earlier this week, FA chairman David Bernstein had declared his intention to get tough with any action that brought the game into disrepute, making specific reference to postings on Twitter.
However, at the same Wembley conference, influential Kick it Out anti-racism campaigner Lord Ousley said he was surprised Ferdinand had been charged because he had not instigated the Twitter conversation in the first place.
Earlier this year, the 33-year-old's Manchester United team-mate Federico Macheda was fined £15,000 and warned about his future conduct after posting a homophobic Tweet. And this week, Arsenal's Emmanuel Frimpong was fined £6,000 for an anti-Semitic Tweet.
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Can we get some parity here. Either Suarez, Terry and Ferdinand are all guilty of racial impropriety or none of them are. Suarez was found guilty by the FA and I believe, on those grounds alone, so should Terry and Ferdinand. In court, Terry was found not guilty (as opposed to being found innocent, as claimed by many ofhis supporters) but this was purely because he stuck to his story and couldn't be caught out in cross examination, thereby providing a reasonable doubt. The FA will use balance of probabilities, in which case, Terry will be found guilty because he clearly said the words, and Ferdinand can't possibly ( being the anti-racist campaigner that he is) honestly claim to not know what choc ice referred to.
All that being said - much ado about nothing in all cases. If you can call somebody a f***ing c**t, it should make no difference if you refer to their colour as well. All abusive language should be removed from the work place, especially in such a highly televised workplace.
anton
if ferdinand gets any sort of ban it wont hurt manu as hes well past it as a footballer ,and if he gets a costly fine well he will just ask fergie to pay it ,and he can well afford it if reports are to be believed that hes been lining his pockets with large wads of cash in collusion with the wonderful glazers lol
