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Anton Ferdinand has called on John Terry to sit down with him in front of live cameras and look at “footage unblurred” of their October 2011 incident – following which Ferdinand accused Terry of racial abuse.
Terry, then Chelsea captain, was charged over the incident at Loftus Road but was then cleared in court. Terry has always denied abusing the former QPR player, though was given a four-match ban and a £222,000 fine by the Football Association after the incident.
Terry was previously found not guilty – in Westminster Magistrates Court in July 2012 – of a racially-aggravated public order offence as the prosecution was unable to prove he had called Ferdinand a “f****** black c***” as an insult. Terry admitted using the words, but insisted he had only been repeating words he thought Ferdinand had accused him of saying.
Last week, Terry insisted he had tried to make contact with Ferdinand in the aftermath but was blanked. However, Ferdinand has now responded and sent a message to the ex-England skipper.
“As you know, I’d done a documentary for the BBC [in 2021, titled: Football, Racism and Me] which stated all the facts, which he [Terry] actually declined coming on,” Ferdinand said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I wanted him on there to create positive change.
“I’ve seen what he’s had to say on Simon Jordan’s podcast so my thing is this: if you really want to make positive change, I’ll sit down with you with live cameras rolling so there’s nowhere for us to hide.
“We’ll look at the actual footage, unblurred, and we’ll start from there.
“If you don’t want to talk about it like that, as far as I’m concerned the case is closed for me.”
Ferdinand posted the video alongside a tweet which tagged Terry, saying: “Positive change… John Terry if you want to discuss, let’s sit down and watch the footage back?!”
The unsavoury episode came back into the public spotlight last week when Terry, appearing on Simon Jordan’s Up Front podcast, spoke about the incident and how Ferdinand’s brother, Manchester United legend and former England team-mate Rio, had ignored him on the beach in Dubai.
Terry said: “Since then I’ve tried to speak to Rio, who doesn’t want to talk to me at all. I’ve seen him on the beach in Dubai and he refused to speak to me. I think it could have been addressed and dealt with a lot better if I’m honest.’
“I tried to make contact with Anton that evening after the game,’ he said. ‘And I basically got shut down instantly from all of them.
“I knew Anton, we were mates, we knew each other and always got on well. Obviously, I got on well with Rio. We could have done something that was more powerful than what came about in the end. And that’s probably my disappointment because it’s [racism] is in the game.
“Clearly in the stadiums and all of that now that we need to get out for sure. We could have done something very powerful as a group of players, not only us but everybody else I think at the time.”
At the time, the FA decided to launch their own investigation into the matter which angered Terry and he announced he was quitting international football with immediate effect, saying his position was “untenable”, on the eve of the independent hearing.
Terry’s legal team had argued the governing body’s own rules dictated that his acquittal in court meant the case could not proceed but the FA decided to carry on with their investigation, stating their charge was distinct from the court charge.