Terry takes on Ferdinand in online spat
The social media spat between John Terry and Rio Ferdinand over their respective playing careers yesterday degenerated into an exchange over the allegation that Terry racially abused Ferdinand’s brother Anton.
The argument had begun on Thursday when Ferdinand, a BT Sport pundit, rated himself first and Terry only fifth in his list of the all-time greatest Premier League centre-backs.
Terry, who helped inspire Chelsea to five Premier League titles, responded with an Instagram post that listed some of his career highlights and most impressive statistics alongside the words “stats don’t lie”.
Ferdinand replied by saying that Terry was “lucky” to make the list at all following the accusation that he racially abused his brother.
“The moment one has to start pushing their own records and stats it’s really time to start addressing the fragile ego,” Ferdinand wrote. “You’re lucky I even put you in the top 5 after the racism case with my brother so be thankful you made it.”
Terry, who has always denied racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, fired back: “A fragile ego is putting yourself at Number 1. Thanks for putting me in your top 5.”
This prompted a fan to point out that Terry had not addressed Ferdinand’s mention of the racism case. Terry, though, soon bit back with the reply: “Stats don’t lie “NOT GUILTY” Addressed it now what?” followed by a clown emoji.
He also “liked” a posting from a Chelsea supporter who took aim at Ferdinand. “Ohh you mean the racism case when he got cleared. Pipe Down Rio, you weren’t good enough to Lace JTS boots,” the user wrote, alongside an article reporting how Terry was found not guilty in a criminal court.
Terry was accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand during a match between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers in 2011.
The case went to Westminster
Magistrates Court, where Terry was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence. Terry did receive a four-game ban and a £220,000 Football Association fine after being found guilty by an independent FA tribunal of using “abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour” which “included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Anton Ferdinand”.
Ferdinand had been discussing the topic of the greatest Premier League defenders on BT Sport with Virgil van Dijk and had placed the current Liverpool centre-back in his top five alongside himself at No1, Nemanja Vidic, Jaap Stam and Terry.
There was praise from Ferdinand for Terry. “In terms of his longevity at that club, what they won, body on the line, a much better footballer than people give him credit for, could play off his left and right foot,” said Ferdinand.
Van Dijk put Terry fourth, behind Ferdinand, Vincent Kompany and Stam. Sami Hyypia was fifth.