Ashley Cole, the Chelsea and England defender, has taken to Twitter to vent his anger after doubts were cast over the viability of the statement he gave supporting John Terry over the alleged racial abuse aimed at Anton Ferdinand. In a charming turn of phrase, Cole called the FA a ‘bunch of t—s’ for implying that he could be lying.
His outburst was the response to a report being published that questioned the statement Cole made which supported Terry’s version of event during the hearing of the former captain of England which took place last week. Cole’s tirade took place the day after he had been named in the England squad for the crucial World Cup qualifying matches against San Marino at home, and away in Poland.
It rounds off what has been an exceptionally busy week for Roy Hodgson, the England manager, which included an apology to Rio Ferdinand, the Man Utd defender after discussing his international prospects with a complete stranger on the London Underground. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse up pops Cole and his rant, throwing his own participation in the qualifiers into serious doubt.
Terry was cleared back in July at Westminster Magistrates Court of a racially aggravated public order offence, which was partly due to the testimony given by Cole, his team mate at both club and country level. The FA commission has since, however, found discrepancies in the initial statement which Cole gave in an FA interview regarding what he heard Terry say to Ferdinand compared to statements he gave later.
Cole didn’t say the word ‘black’ in the initial interview on the 28th October, but on the 3rd November David Barnard, the Chelsea club secretary, asked for the word to be inserted into Cole’s statement, this suggesting that Cole may have heard Terry use the term after all.