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Anton Ferdinand has spoken about the guilt he felt for not speaking out during his high-profile racism case against John Terry.
The former West Ham, QPR and Sunderland defender has opened up about the case for the first time in the BBC documentary. Anton Ferdinand: football, racism and me.
Then-Chelsea and England captain Terry was accused of using racist language during a Premier League match between QPR and Chelsea on October 23, 2011.
Although Terry was acquitted in a criminal case related to the incident, after it was found that it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the words were pronounced as abuse, a disciplinary panel independent of the Football Association, working by a lower threshold, found him guilty.
While Ferdinand did not hear the words at the time, the defender was advised not to comment on the incident publicly as he suffered a torrent of racist abuse online, something he regrets not speaking about at the time.
Anton Ferdinand played for Queens Park Rangers between 2011 and 2013
“I still have the feeling of disappointing people for not speaking,” said Anton Ferdinand. “I still feel guilty and it corrodes me more than anything and I don’t know how to get rid of it.
“At the time I was angrier than anything and I knew that because I was angry, if I spoke about it then I would have become a stereotype of a young black man who shoots from the hip and screams his way out.”
Rio Ferdinand has spoken out about the racist abuse suffered by his younger brother Anton during the John Terry case
Rio: I felt powerless over Anton’s situation
Anton Ferdinand’s older brother Rio was also involved in the documentary and believes the case had a detrimental effect on his brother’s career.
Rio was Terry’s teammate in England at the time and he also regrets not discussing the case, not only with his brother, but also publicly.
“The incident was probably the catalyst for his career recession,” Rio Ferdinand said.
“Who knows how I would have reacted if at every stage people went to made you feel like you were the instigator and the aggressor in the situation where you were really the victim.
“Yelling obscenities all the time about the case so you can never get away from it.
“I was confused and disappointed with the way it came undone and we never really talked about it, I don’t know why we never did it in depth.
“Everybody said, except for some close friends, the family, especially the mother and father, they told us not to say anything, to let the lawyers take care of it and go to court and it will be resolved.
“And I feel guilty because all I kept thinking was: how is this happening to my brother? I should have spoken, but I felt helpless.”
John Terry and Anton Ferdinand during the Premier League match between QPR and Chelsea on October 23, 2011
FA denies favoring Terry after Ferdinand documentary
The FA has denied showing favoritism to Terry during the racism investigation.
In the documentary, Anton Ferdinand criticized the FA’s handling of the high-profile case, saying he “did not feel like the victim” when he spoke to the governing body investigators.
However, the FA issued a statement immediately after the program aired to deny any suggestion that its investigation favored the defender.
England’s governing body said it “believed in the case against Terry” and that it stripped him of the England captaincy ahead of Euro 2012 “early in the process.”
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A statement read: “Believing in the case against John Terry, they (the FA regulatory team) worked tirelessly to ensure that the case brought before the disciplinary panel was robust, having properly recorded and challenged all relevant witness evidence, which which ultimately resulted in a successful prosecution before an FA Disciplinary Panel.
“Early in the process, the FA also removed John Terry as England’s captain because of the seriousness of the allegations. It did not show any favoritism and made clear the seriousness of the allegations.”
According to the BBC, Ferdinand attempted to contact Terry during the making of the documentary, without having spoken since that day on Loftus Road, although Terry reportedly attempted to contact Ferdinand afterwards.
Terry did not respond to Ferdinand’s message, but his representatives did respond to the production team, saying that he has moved on with his life and does not want to reopen a television case that was decided in court.
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