here and make up your own mind about it, but I’m going to have a rant either way.
Winter says that Terry should be forced to apologise for being found guilty of making a racist remark by an independent Regulatory Commission (bearing in mind the FA’s definition of independent is a loose one) and believes the former England captain to be a fool if he decides to appeal, despite the fact he is well within his rights to do so and has declared his innocence from the beginning.
The journalist points to the written judgement to explain his reasons, but fails to question quite how it could be passed without the burden of proof which is a must for incidents considered serious under the FA’s own rules and there are several other flaws in the FA’s decision, which were highlighted by Dan Levene of the Fulham Chronicle. (Read it here and follow @BluesChronicle on Twitter. He went further and this is also worth a read here.
I believe Winter is letting his profession down here. He’s not a stupid man and in his line of work he’d have a knowledge of the law and must look at this seeing that something doesn’t quite add up here, especially when FA logic dictates that Terry lied about kneeing Sanchez in the back so must be lying about what he said in relation to the incident involving Anton Ferdinand also. The FA also describe Terry’s defence as contrived despite Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle describing Terry as a credible witness despite saying that it was “highly unlikely” that Ferdinand accused Terry of racially abusing him, but added that it was entirely possible that the Chelsea defender was challenging what he thought had been said to him.
Terry didn’t deny using the words, only the context in which they were said and if he’s to be banned plus fined merely for saying them then that is fair enough. If it is a misunderstanding between himself and Ferdinand leading Terry to apologise for repeating what he thought he hard then that’s also fair enough as it’s foul language that has no place in society.
Ferdinand also openly admitted abusing Terry at the time, also against the rules, but has not received any comeuppance and could have/should have been charged after breaking the following…
Rule E.3(2)(a) Not acting in the best interests of the game.
(b) Acting in a manner that is deemed to be improper.
(c) Bringing the game into disrepute.
(e) Use of threatening words/gestures.
(f) Threatening and insulting behaviour.
(g) Use of abusive words/gestures
(h) Abusive behaviour.
(i) Use of indecent words/gestures.
(j) Indecent behaviour.
(k) Use of insulting words/gestures
(Courtesy of @DannyDoes)
Then there’s his grievance with Cole. Apparently Mr Winter ‘nearly swerved off the road’ when he heard that Cole had called the FA a bunch of twats for implying that he was a liar (is he taking the piss?)
Cole lashed out, it was unwise, but why should footballers be stopped from using Twitter for trivial instances such as this? It would just increase the distance between fans and players even further. Several journalists also remarked that Cole shouldn’t speak about his employers in such a way, remind me who employs Cole again? As one of my Twitter followers said, it’s about time those at the FA realise that the England players are representing their country and their fans, not playing for the suits at FA headquarters.
Anyway, that’s my rant over. I’m not suggesting that either of these players has never done anything wrong and I’d be foolish if I ignored their previous wrongdoings but I’d like to see a bit of balance when it comes to journalism and believe the likes of Winter have only presented one side of the story. In an age where footballers are repeatedly caught out for their mistakes and openly mocked for doing so, I could never imagine Winter describing the likes of Rio Ferdidand, Wayne Rooney or Ryan Giggs being labelled ‘toxic’. In fact, everyone’s often eager to crawl up their hole, especially when it comes to Giggs who is by far more immoral than Ashley Cole is.
Winter is right about one thing, when it comes to Chelsea Football Club, all the talking should be about Roberto Di Matteo’s side’s great start to the season and the silky skills of players like Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar – but it would be too much to ask to concentrate on the positives, wouldn’t it?
Winter is a cnut
Winter’s piece was ill advised and cheap; nothing more than an opportunity to buy up some space with an unthought-out illogical, possibly swiftly-written and ultimately futile piece of writing.
I believe he will look at this cheap shot as possibly his worst writing. As you say, he is not unintelligent, but this piece lets him down badly. Some points he makes could have been expanded upon and backed up to make a stronmger argument against the players, but he has made the whole thing reactionary and emotive – except I dont think he has “chosen” to do that.
It strikes me that this is lazy journalism in the extreme, the sort of thing one might find being put into a local rag close to print deadline. Crap filler, in other words.
For his sake, and that of his newspaper, I hope I am right. If not, Winter has penned a piece that is arrogant, illogical and unsupportable, and an extremely weak example of the journalists art.
An unbiased mind can only crave to understand why the FA shudnt be called “bunch of tw*s” if they can serve a guilty verdict on a case based on an unverified report of Terry lying about kneeing Sanchez in Barcelona. Well, they shudnt av wasted time in giving this verdict if that were the required evidence for nailing Terry-a man who has given his boyhood and strength for his country, playing along-side blacks and other races. In the end, if Majority of England holds Terry in disdain, it only shows how hypocritical, ungrateful, self-righteous and self-serving the English people are (with exception of those minority with fair mind). For this and many other reasons, England cannot win the world cup or even any major football tournament. When it comes to Chelsea and John Terry, there is prejudice-even Hazard is begining to experience it in the face of penalty appeals. Lest i forget i used astericks in the “bunch of twats” so am i free?
mr. Winter or wtf they call…….he doesnt have the rite 2 call em names……..i know a goat that has more sense than him!
WTF? This goat you speak of, what is his name?
Which is hard to understand? That even the FA like so many witnesses say Terry is not a racist? Or the fact that were he a racist Chelsea would av known with all the black and coloured players they have over the years? If Cole could stand for JT, then… That ‘probably’ Terry insulted Anton is not Justice. The court looked at evidence beyond doubt and he wasnt guilty, FA looks at probabilty. How do they account for the other part of the probabilty? The FA gave cole a pat in d back for his misconduct but makes JT d sinner. I must belive that English court is so incapable of meting out justice after receiving months of evidence for or against Terry, but the FA is now the last hope for England and EPL players.
Mr Winters’ piece is,as stated, both ill informed, misguided & lazy. Jumping on the “anti Chelsea bandwagon”. JT is vilified by a ‘supposedly’ independent panel who appear to think the are above the Law. Guilty on the balance of probability bay panel that on the balance of PROBABILITY had been told by the FA that JT was to be made an example of. Maybe untrue but none the less probable! According to Mr Winter JT should receive the harshest of penalties for his ‘RACIST COMMENTS’. Ashley Cole should be dropped from the England squad for having the temerity to speak out against those that have accused him of purgery. I feel a little context is required, was the same bile directed @ Mr Rooney for paying for sex with a butt ugly hooker, old enough to be his mum, while his pregnant wife at home! NO. Was there calls from Mr Winter to drop Ryan Giggs from the Man Utd squad or Wales when nit came to light that he was shagging half his family! NO. I also see the he goats wrote a certain Mr Gerrards’ auto biography. A man accused of assault , yet is still the current England Captian. Mr Winter clearly has an agenda or is just a lazy journal. Having read many of his articles I think the former. His piece should be treated as exactly what it is TOMORROW’S FISH & CHIP WRAPPER!
Winter isn’t a fool and journalists are anything but lazy, so this is either just a really bad piece or pure vitriol on his part.
It is an example of the media agenda his particular publication has taken against us, some are worse than others but they’re all pretty much anti-Chelsea.
Of course every set of fans believe the media is against them and the journos use this paranoia as a defence for writing defamatory things about players at Chelsea FC. And they can use the decision of a made up court that an ex member of the FA described as anything but independent and a shambles, as an excuse for coming up with such rubbish.
You can see how gutted they were with the not guilty verdict in the summer at a real court, so they had to jump on the bandwagon when the FA circus delivered one of the most odd written judgements you’ve ever seen. They contradict their own rules all the way through.