John Terry's defence for his racial slur was "improbable, implausible and contrived"

As I have told it here, John Terry was guilty of racism.  The Football Association have released the written reasons behind the independent panel's decision to ban Chelsea captain John Terry for four games and fine him £220,000 for using racist language towards QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

The 63-page document concluded that there was "no credible basis" for Terry's defence that the words "fucking black cunt" were used as a forceful rejection. Read the full written reasons here.
The commission found there was no dispute that racially sensitive words were used by John Terry but added that had they been used by way of forceful rejection/inquiry then they would be "not enough for him to be found guilty of misconduct in this particular case".

In evidence provided to the FA, Anton Ferdinand made "no reference to colour, race or ethnicity" which was consistent with other statements made regarding what happened on the pitch. He maintained there were no words beginning with "b" that might have been misunderstood by Mr Terry as being "black".

Terry's decision not to give evidence denied the Commission the opportunity to test his theory, given that his credibility "had its limitations" in terms of the extent to whether an acquittal would have been possible given a different burden of proof.

That Mr Ferdinand did not accuse Mr Terry of racially abusing him and did not use the word "black" or any words in reference to race. The report said: "We are driven to conclude not just that it is 'highly unlikely' that Mr Ferdinand accused Mr Terry on the pitch of using these words, but that he did not."

That Mr Terry did not hear, and could not have believed, understood or misunderstood Mr Ferdinand to have used the word "black", or any word(s) that might have suggested that he was accusing Mr Terry of racially abusing him.

That Mr Cole did not hear, and could not have believed, understood or misunderstood Mr Ferdinand to have used the word "black" or any other word beginning with the word "B‟ that had any reference to, or context with, skin colour, race or ethnicity.

That in the brief time that it took Mr Ferdinand to advance up the pitch towards Mr Terry, it is improbable that the focus of Mr Ferdinand's abuse and insults of Mr Terry would have changed so quickly from an allegation of an affair, to one involving skin colour, or race.

Apart from the initial phase of the incident as a whole, Mr Terry and Mr Ferdinand were never closer to one another than an estimated distance of 19 metres. Given the noise of the compact Loftus Road stadium that "it is unlikely that Terry would have heard anything that Ferdinand may have been saying".