Oh Lordy. The John Terry-Anton Ferdinand case.
It apparently pans out like this. There is a dispute about a penalty. Terry calls Ferdinand a c&%t (it's an ugly word - why spread ugliness around the world by repeating it unadulterated?). Ferdinand calls Terry a c&%t in return. Terry then makes a gesture indicating Ferdinand's breath smells (what is this gesture? It would be useful to know for domestic situations). Ferdinand then says, according to his own evidence, "How can you call me a c&%t? You shagged your team-mate's missus. You're a c&%t".
Evidence then suggests that as Terry runs off he shouts, "fuck off, fuck off . . . fucking black c&%t, fucking knobhead" (also ugly words; but tiresome to redact). Ferdinand doesn't seem to have heard this, and only became aware of it when his girlfriend showed him a video on Youtube after the match, but he told the court yesterday (according to the Guardian), "being called a c&%t was fine . . . but when someone brings your colour into it, it takes it to another level and it's very hurtful".
Assuming this exchange of insults approximately represents the exchange between the two - I hesitate to call them men: let's make do with footballers - what a vista of stupidity and inarticulacy it opens up.
Terry's opening gambit is the C-word; but then he takes it to another level by implying halitotis; no doubt if relations had really broken down he might might have cried, "Oy, get some Listerine, you c&%t!", or made one of those athlete's foot related jibes guaranteed to cause mayhem in the penalty area. Ferdinand on the other hand doesn't mind being called a c&%t; it's being called a black c&%t he objects to. Because let's face it, it's the adjective black which is really offensive. Much more so than c&%t.
Anton Ferdinand didn't bring the prosecution himself, and I bet he wishes the ground would open up and swallow him.
To be clear, if anyone truly deserves the C-word here it is John Terry, a great footballer but a rather loathsome individual. I hold no brief for Terry, and clearly a healthy society cannot function properly if people can be discriminated against or abused on racial grounds. But neither can society work if people go around calling each other c&%ts. That's why the Public Order Act exists, and in particular the sections which deal with threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. If it was right to prosecute John Terry, why isn't Anton Ferdinand being prosecuted as well?
The cynical answer to this is that racism allegations trump all in Britain. A more nuanced one might be that if every footballer who used abusive or insulting words on the pitch were prosecuted, the criminal justice system would grind to a halt. Fair enough; but the Terry / Ferdinand pas de deux looks increasingly like handbags at twenty paces, a.k.a six of one and half a dozen of the other. John Terry is probably not actually a racist (how could he play football for a team as multi racial as Chelsea if he were?), and Anton Ferdinand gave pretty much as good as he got. Much better the handshake in the dressing room and no prosecution at all than Terry alone in the dock for one adjective amidst a sea of c&%ts. Prosecute both, or neither.
The unfairness, if that's what it is, of the Terry prosecution is all the more glaring when one considers what happened to Luis Suarez, found by the FA to have racially abused Patrice Evra several times during a game last season. When is the Suarez prosecution happening? Well actually it isn't. Suarez got banned for a few games, but that's all.
I never thought I'd write this, but justice might be better served by Terry getting off.
In English football the days of throwing bananas on the pitch appear thankfully to be over. But perhaps the days of chucking on toothpaste tubes are just beginning. Footballers would go the extra mile to avoid the H-word. Fans begin to floss. Better dental health all round. Everybody wins!
P.S. Three days later, Terry has just been acquitted. Probably the least unfair of the two possible results. But what we really need now is a Leveson-style enquiry into the state of his teeth. Does he really have bad breath? I think we should be told.
