Not really, Ferdinand saw the abusive words on the footage some time after the game. If at the time Terry used those words Ferdinand didn't even think there was any issue of racial abuse it actually contradicts Terry's statement (that he was responding to an allegation of using them) completely.

I don't know about that. It seems to be fairly consistent with terry's story. in that before he knew there was footage or any trouble, he called in ferdinand and asked him if he thought that he had racially abused him. ferdinand said this too. I'm a little worried.

You're a little worried that the England captain didn't racially abuse a black man on the pitch? Isn't that a bit weird.

Anyway, apparently AF said today that Terry said to him that Ashley Cole said to him (Terry) that AF said to Cole that Terry abused him. If you follow. I have no idea if that contradicts Terry's evidence or not, as I can't quite follow it myself.

But that's an old trick. Insult you and then, realising that this was stupid, pre-empting things by saying that, if you heard it, it's all a huge misunderstanding.

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote:


But the issue of the trial will not be did Ferdinand hear the abuse at the time but that it was used at all and the context.

Er Liquidatore wrote:


Cole/Terry/AF in discussion yesterday.

You're all nuts.

well so far today, JT has been going on about how some of his best teammates are black. and how he does work for didier drogba's charity and so on.

His lawyer then moved to have the charges dismissed, as the case was tenuous, and his client had a plausible explanation and that AF was unreliable.

Apparently they're going down the line that AF did actually say it, rather than I misunderstood in the heat of battle, which is a curious way of going about things.

maybe he's lying through his teeth, or he's the first example of This that we've found in the wild

from daniel taylor's twitter feed

"Prosecutor: You're the victim here aren't you? You've been stitched up right and proper haven't you? Terry: yeah"

I'm quite perplexed by this trial.

Literally every participant, with the possible exception of the judge, appears to be playing entirely for the media and public, with relatively little regard for what the judge may actually find probative.

And I have my suspicions about the judge, as he is allowing all of this nonsense to go on.

There ain't no judge, just magistrates.

Apparently UEFA have santioned courtroom technology so that it's clear if Terry's behaviour has really crossed the line.

Someone told me that earlier so I don't suppose it's original.

Just trying to find some levity in this whole tawdry affair.

Yes there is a judge, District Judge Howard Riddle (it's often a judge - instead of magistrates - who's chosen for a high-profile or more complex case like this one):

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/...ng-racism-trial.html

There aren't any magistrates in this case, DJs sit alone:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magistrate#United_Kingdom

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_Engla...ales#District_Judges

the request to have the whole thing thrown out was a pretty spectacular piece of grandstanding, more from the realms of judge john deed than anything else

stupid double post

Rio Ferdinand's next recommended film of the day was A Cock and Bull Story...

Rio is such a card.

I just wonder if Rio has been privy to some things when in the national team that he either felt were innocent then or he knew they would not be believed if reported...?

ursus arctos wrote:


The English Judge Lance Ito?

For those who don't recall, the judge in OJ Simpson's murder trial.

Ironically I am posting this just one block away from the courthouse where Judge Ito sits on the bench!

It's quite difficult to follow this at times. What terry seems to claim to have said is "Yeah, Yeah, a black cunt? You fucking knobhead!" He wants us to infer from this that he is being sarcastic in response to an allegation that he finds ridiculous.

However if factor in anton ferdinand's total lack of awareness of what had been said, and you change what he said to what appears on the video footage to just be a rather aggressive "you fucking black cunt. You fucking knobhead", it looks a lot worse. I wonder If he's going to manage to float that one.

I wonder what is going to happen with the rest of this trial. I wonder what ashley cole is going to say. I think that the defense lawyer has been hinting that Anton ferdinand is an unreliable witness, I wonder how that is going to fit in with the rest of their trial.

He also says that he sent for Anton Ferdinand 15 minutes after the game, to check out if he thought that he racially abused him, because he didn't want that mistaken idea to go any further.

Now anton ferdinand puts that meeting at 45 minutes after the game, which I suppose matters quite a lot, because a lot of people saw him say that, and it was all over twitter before the game was over. It was up on youtube well within an hour of the game. If jt meets him 45 minutes later, it looks like someone has told him, and he's trying to limit the damage, and he's moving the hands of the clock like in an agatha christie novel.

And another thing. Is terry being tried because he said something would have particularly offended ferdinand had he heard him, or is he being tried because he was seen on telly, clearly saying something that really pissed off an awful lot of people? I'm kind of curious, because it's quite difficult to follow this case at all. The complaint wasn't made by ferdinand mind you, but by an off duty copper.

I think the fact that Terry "sent for" Ferdinand (and that is how it has been reported everywhere) is pretty telling.

He hasn't been hinting at it, he's been saying it straight out.

Team Terry's line of defence is that Ferdinand has an axe to grind and therefore twisted the tone of these words. When asked by the prosecutor whether he had been stitched up, Terry vigorously agreed.

As a strategy, I find that puzzling, since we know that the complaint didn't come from Ferdinand but from a police officer. Will Team Terry claim that the cop was in on a big conspiracy and that everybody is fibbing except Terry and his friends?

The prosecutor has also negated the "some of my best friends are black" line of defence by suggesting, probably correctly, that the racial insult was the result of a burst of anger. So Terry is not necessarily a racist (which isn't at issue), but used racist language (which is).

Of course, in our anger we tend to reveal much about ourselves.

Terry's explanation is quite bizarre. I think he'd have been better served settling this thing, admit a massive mistake (with tears, if necessary), promise that he has learnt a lesson, offer to take part in anti-racism campaign, and hope the thing would blow over. Instead he is potentially revealing himself not only as a racist, but a liar as well.

Calling the victim of alleged racism a liar and pronouncing having "sent for" a black player doesn't really help much in establishing Terry's anti-racist credentials.