As we hear the Metropolitan police now plan to investigate the complaint from ‘a member of the public’ regarding an alleged racist comment John Terry made to Anton Ferdinand, a number of Chelsea supporters on their European travels have seen fit to voice their opinions for all to hear.
God knows everyone else has expressed their opinion on it although in the main, this has been about what was (or maybe wasn’t) said and what it means as far as John Terry is concerned. Personally, I’ve tried to steer clear of giving my own opinion on it, preferring to wait for the whole sorry mess to reach its conclusion before I wade in. The supporters last night however, didn’t appear to be debating the merits of what’s alleged to have happened though, because they appeared to be passing a judgement of their own – and it hasn’t done themselves, John Terry, or the club any favours.
You see whilst some of us were tweeting away, commenting on the game itself, some of the Chelsea contingent were chanting “Anton Ferdinand, you know what you are”. Why? Well at the time, I argued it could have simply been alluding to him being a liar – he’s made a statement and whilst that’s not public yet, we’re told he’s denied any conversation ever took place with JT after the QPR game. Whilst that’s what I’d have preferred to be the case (since they couldn’t put it aside completely), the general consensus – amongst Chelsea support as much as our rivals – is that the chant was racist in nature. Why? Well because if it wasn’t they would have felt the need to ‘allude’ to anything, they’d just come right out and say it.
Sit comfortably? No it doesn’t. Personally, I find any form of racism really offensive and it’s certainly not something I want associated with my club. Of course it has been though because there’ll always be a mindless minority wherever you go but I’d like to think the club would deal with them appropriately. They’ve certainly suggested they do although last night’s display would suggest they may need to try harder, since a club spokesman stating “The chanting was wholly inappropriate and we don’t condone it”, doesn’t really cover it.
But on the club dealing with the issue of discrimination as rigorously as they suggest they do, I guess it begs the question – what if John Terry is found guilty of racism? Naturally at the present time, the Chelsea captain has the club’s full support, and rightly so since the allegation has neither been investigated nor concluded one way of the other. He also has the backing of the majority of supporters from what I gather but let’s just take the worst case scenario, say for example further video footage suggests it didn’t happen how JT says it did – what then?
He’d certainly lose the England captaincy (again) and undoubtedly find himself out of the squad altogether but what of Chelsea’s position on it? Given their ‘actions speak louder than words’ stance and last year’s insistence that the club “will take the strongest possible action against anyone found making any kind of discriminatory chant or taunt”, where would it leave them should any of their players be found guilty of it?
Blue is the colour
