John Terry, the FA and racism

It’s been a few days since the FA’s appeal period for John terry expired. I guess now is the time a real analysis can be given over what has actually happened as a whole. It was a long year coming and perhaps way to long for everyone involved. First and foremost, lets differentiate between the court case and the FA query. The court is a very different atmosphere where justice is missed on many occasions. This isn’t to say that the court made the wrong decision however money often prevails in court.

Many were watching the video on YouTube moments after the game and were making their judgements. It seemed pretty clear what John Terry said and of course Terry couldn’t really deny what he said. Terry’s defence had some clear flaws in it regardless. I’m not going to go into this too deeply but Terry claims he was asking Ferdinand a question, the video doesn’t back his claims. Ferdinand is not looking at him which shows that the likelihood of a conversation being shared is rare. We also saw John Obi Mikel in view who turns and clearly hears something in my opinion. If we take the distance and the facial expressions Mikel expresses we can seriously believe he heard what was said and chose to plead the fifth.

Instead of moving on with the issue and dealing with it swiftly, a year expired and much fuel has been added to the fire. Now lets observe the punishment. A few hundred thousand and a four match ban. I say few with no undervalue of the money, in respect to Mr Terry, the money is futile. What the FA are saying is racism, is one more game severe than a serious tackle . The FA effectively took away John Terry’s pocket-money for a week and gave him a red card. This is all in isolation, not taking Mr Suarez into consideration. For a millionaire, a few hundred thousand really means little financially. Racism is a serious issue. In the workplace this could see an employee sacked. John Terry is still Chelsea captain, which should have been taken the moment he chose not to appeal his punishment. It was in my opinion very cowardly for John Terry to first through his management company claim disappointment for the FA not ruling similar to the courts. John Terry should rest in the fact that the courts didn’t find him guilty so he can have some sort of defence to cling to.

Most people who saw what most did. cannot really defend him even though many can come and provide character witness for him. This was on thing I found annoying. The many people claiming John Terry wasn’t racist or they have known him for so long. In these cases that is very unimportant. Whether someone has never made statements before, that doesn’t mean they can’t do it.
Secondly it was also cowardly for John Terry to remove himself from the England team, claiming his position became untenable. I don’t really know what he was playing at. He played while the case was going through court, while the allegations were in waiting to be tried and right on the eve of his FA hearing, he says he can no longer hold the position. A cowardly way for Terry to act.

In closing with so much going on in the eye of racism, the punishments must be more severe. We should be looking for double-digit bans not single a amount of games. This kind of behaviour is serious and serious punishments must be dealt.