Explained: The classic British choc-ice... and classic British justice: how John Terry verdict is tearing football apart

At odds: Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand

After global fury over John Terry's "not guilty" verdict on Friday, English football is threatening to dissolve in to civil war over racism.
The Terry camp, cockahoop after magistrate Howard Riddle decided the words "f***ing black *c**t" were not insulting, now insist Rio Ferdinand is a racist for agreeing that Ashley Cole is a "choc-ice".

Manchester United star Rio, brother of Terry's victim Anton, insists he was simply being "sarcastic" but Chelsea left-back Cole's lawyers have now produced a statement on their client's behalf.
Cole acted as a "corroborative but not compelling" defence witness for pal Terry according to Riddle's bizarre judgement on Friday.

A "choc ice" is a popular ice-cream in England which is, of course "brown on the outside, cold and white inside".

Rio, who has over three MILLION followers on Twitter, received this tweet: "Looks like Ashley Cole's going to be their choc-ice. Then again he's always been a sell out. Shame on him." 

To which Ferdinand responded: "I hear you fella! Choc ice is classic! hahahahahahha!!"
Rio added: "And if I want to laugh at something someone tweets....I will! Hahahahaha! Now stop getting ya knickers in a twist!"

As the storm grew, Rio tweeted an explanation yesterday saying: "What I said yesterday is not a racist term. Its a type of slang/term used by many for someone who is being fake. So there." 

In South Africa, where incredulity over Friday's judgement may lead to a boycott of watching the popular English Premier League, sympathy is generally with Rio who arrives on tour with United this week for friendlies in Durban and Cape Town.

My appearances on eNews, SupersportBlitz and radio stations 702 and Cape Talk on Friday night rubbishing Riddle's judgement appeared to suggest huge anger against Terry and the British justice system on the local social networks.

Ironically, Rio, Cole and Terry have frequently made up three of England's back-four in recent years but sympathy for Terry - and Cole - is hard to find outside of Chelsea circles.

Cole's lawyers said: "Ashley Cole has been made aware of the discussion following comments appearing on Twitter and wishes to make it clear that he and Rio Ferdinand are good friends and Ashley has no intention of making any sort of complaint. Ashley appreciates that tweeting is so quick it often results in off-hand and stray comments."

Cole has yet to comment on Ferdinand's latest tweet.
Terry - and Anton Ferdinand, who admitted to taunting his rival over past affairs - will now face Football Association charges as I suggested on Friday.
Given that Liverpool's Luis Suarez was banned for eight games and fined £40,000 (R480,000) with far less evidence, the FA are now compelled to punish Terry for words which were clearly uttered on YouTube footage when Chelsea played QPR last October.

Unlike a criminal case, the FA have to prove Terry guilty on "a balance of probabilities" not "beyond reasonable doubt".

Herman Ouseley, chair of the anti-racism group Kick It Out, told the Observer in England yesterday: "I am worried that this is a defining moment for the FA, to show it is a governing body prepared to keep to a high standard on the racism issue.

"If this incident, and the racial element of it, is not seen to be dealt with properly, there is the potential for black players to lose confidence in the authorities and withdraw their support for anti-racism campaigns."

Nerves, nails and underpants: all you need to know about the final round of Premier League action today

Gunner be tough: How I may look on eTV tomorrow morning

For those frantically chewing nails before the Premier League finale, some facts:

1 If QPR hold Manchester City to a draw today and United win, Sir Alex takes his 13^th title.

2 If QPR fail as expected and Sunderland lose to United, City take it on goal difference.

3 If both Manchester giants win (or lose), City win the title for the first time since 1968.

4 If Arsenal beat West Brom, they take third and a guaranteed Champions League spot.

5 If Spurs finish fourth, they must wait and see if Chelsea win in Munich.

6 The Blues will qualify for Europe if they lift the Champions League against Bayern.

7 Robin van Persie needs one goal to equal Alan Shearer’s record of 31 goals.

8 If Bolton win and QPR lose, the Hoops are relegated with Blackburn and Wolves.

9 If Spurs and Arsenal lose and Newcastle win, Alan Pardew completes his dream.

10 If Arsenal lose, I will wear underpants on my head on eTV Sunrise tomorrow.

Yes, d-day has dawned. At the top, middle and bottom of the most watchable football league in the world, fans are currently gathering with frayed nerves around the world.

In Manchester, as Nick Hornby might say, things are at fever pitch. Roberto Mancini’s expensive gathering of international stars, spearheaded by Yaya Toure, must win against QPR at the Etihad Stadium to guarantee their first championship since 1968, when Santa Claus was a lad.

Anything less than that – a draw or an unthinkable defeat – will leave the door wide open for United and Sir Alex Ferguson, who has won 12 of the 19 Premier League titles since the old First Division succumbed in 1992.

This morning, the BBC carry these quotes from City’s Argentine full-back Pablo Zabaleta: "We're only 90 minutes away from making history. If we succeed it is probably the start of a new era for this club."

More worrying than my underpants, Robert Mancini has promised to get a tattoo if City succeed.

United have dominated the Premier era, with Arsenal and Chelsea winning three each and Blackburn one since the dark, distant days of football highlights and terrestrial television coverage.

QPR are, of course, managed by one Mark Hughes. Sparky thrilled Old Trafford in his playing days and will be intent on producing the ultimate spring surprise against City, the club responsible for his unjust sacking and replacement by Mancini.

If the former United striker and City reject does the job and wins a point against City today, it will be perhaps the greatest shock in modern footballing history. But don’t bet against it.

A point will also secure Premier League status for QPR, who change managers more often than I change my Spiderman underpants.

If Bolton win against Stoke and QPR lose, the Hoops will join hopeless Wolves and Blackburn in League One next season.

Then we come to the battle for Champions League qualification, where a point could mean R200m today.

Arsenal are in poll position to take third place despite their woeful 3-3 draw against Norwich last week. Arsene Wenger has been unable to shore up his dodgy defence at the squeaky bottom end of the season and he faces a West Brom side saying farewell to new England boss Roy Hodgson today.

To find out my views on my old coach Woy, simply google “Neal Collins Roy Hodgson”. It’s gone global.

My desperate attempts to call Woy, who coached me when I was 13, have failed. He has no idea what a Baggies win will do to me. As a sideshow, Robin van Persie needs just one more goal to equal the Premier League record of 31.

And of course, if Spurs beat Fulham – and they should at White Hart Lane – Harry Redknapp and the Gooners’ arch-rivals will snatch third if Arsenal draw or lose. Lurking behind the pair of North London wannabes are Newcastle, who could take that third spot if they win at Everton and Spurs and Arsenal lose.

It’s all too much for some. I have promised to wear my nearly-unique and often-admired Spiderman underpants on my head tomorrow on eNews Sunrise’s Classic Play if Arsenal fail. If Mother’s Day prevents you from watching the action this afternoon at 3pm (4pm in South Africa) tune in tomorrow at 7.30am, DSTV channel 134 to find out. The underpants will be on my head. And I will be thoroughly miserable.

Should you miss that, try eNews and Collins Corner at 8.15am on DSTV 403. And read Neal and Pray in The New Age on Tuesday for the full extent of my misery. Arsene Wenger, please don’t do this to me.

You can follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol and www.facebook.com/nealivorcollins.

Just how will twittering bad boy Joey Barton get on with Mark Hughes?

JOEY BARTON became a father for the first time last week at the age of 29. He also scored an 11th-minute goal for QPR against Norwich last Monday afternoon. And after 36 minutes, he got sent-off for the faintest of head-butts on Bradley Johnson, who may even now be considering a career on stage. After seeing his side beaten 2-1 following his dismissal, Barton called for referees to be sued for making mistakes, twittering his 1,040,204 followers: “I wonder how long it is before a football club sues a referee for making a bad decision?” QPR's hastily arranged appeal against the red card failed and Barton is currently suspended for three games. Entirely ignoring the fact he got Arsenal’s Gervinho sent off in very similar circumstances last season, Barton ranted and tweeted all week before his club drew their FA Cup tie at MK Dons last Saturday without him. That was boss Neil Warnock's last game in charge. Curiously, on Friday, Barton was involved in a training ground bust-up with Warnock and his coaching staff. Though suspended, he railed against having to train alone, yelling: "You lot are not going to be here much longer." By Monday this week, Warnock had gone with his promoted side slipping down the table and with suspicious haste, former Wales, Manchester City and Fulham boss Mark Hughes took over yesterday. Some might say Barton played his part in Warnock's dismissal and you could certainly say Joseph Athony Barton is not your average footballer, even in these Premier League days of excess. For a start, his brother Michael Barton is serving a life sentence for the “racially motivated murder” of Anthony Walker in 2005. In May of the same year, Joey broke a 35-year-old pedestrian's leg while driving his car through Liverpool city centre at 2am. He lists world-beating boxer Ricky Hatton and Oasis singer Noel Gallagher among his close friends. He owns a race-horse called “Crying Lightning” and just last week named his newborn son Cassius. On Twitter, he quotes anybody from Friedrich Nietzsche to George Orwell but insists he is not a member of the right-wing English Defence League after an apparently damning picture with one of their leaders. Brought up in the tough Liverpool neighbourhood of Huyton by his father living in his grandparents’ home, he kicked-off his career at Manchester City and earned his first England cap while he was playing in light blue in 2007. Things began to go wrong when, on 20 May 2008 he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for common assault and affray during an incident outside a McDonald's restaurant in Liverpool. He served 77 days. While he was inside, in July 2008, he was handed a four-month suspended sentence after admitting to assaulting team-mate Ousmane Dabo at the City training ground. Other incidents of a similar kind went unpunished. At that point, Newcastle stepped in to end his City nightmare, paying £5.8 million for him in July 2007. After four controversial years with the Magpies, he joined his current club Queens Park Rangers in August 2011. And the arguments rage on. While his side prepared for their FA Cup tie he stuck to his twitter guns, tweeting: “Those 3 points against Norwich could be difference between Premier League survival and not. That equates to a lot of money. “Someone has to set the precedent to stop the game from being ruined, maybe I'll be the first one. Can players sue referees? #Canofwormsopen. “Or a player sues another player for play-acting. Which is basically a lie and that is actionable. Whats the difference?” That was followed by a demand for a resumption of fox hunting after he spotted four of the innocent creatures during a walk in a nearby west London park. And he had time for a quick twitter war with a certain Piers Morgan. This week, Barton says, he is going to take a break from Twitter saying "it's boring the tits off me now" and worrying about "withdrawal systems". I don't expect it to last. It's too much fun for him, for us journalists, and the social networkers. Carry on Joey. But don’t expect any sympathy from rival fans, referees… or the notoriously sparky Hughes. There may be (more) trouble ahead.

Terry race row escalates as Ferdinand receives "graphic" death threat and Capello is told to stay silent

The John Terry race row saga has escalated still further with the news that victim Anton Ferdinand has received an “extremely graphic” death threat and England boss Fabio Capello has been warned NOT to talk about the case by the Met Police in London.

With the Spain friendly looming at Wembley on Saturday – England have enjoyed crushing the world champions at what they like to call the home of football – Capello opted to pick Terry in his squad last night.

But the Italian “generalissimo” opted to axe Wayne Rooney – who will be suspended for the first three games of Euro 2012 next year – and, ironically, Anton’s brother Rio.

Should the FA and the Met Police decide Terry is guilty of calling QPR’s Anton “a f***ing black c***” – and from what I saw on YouTube before the Premier League removed the footage, he certainly did – Terry will surely be withdrawn from the game.

The FA have run a “Kick It Out” campaign against racism for the past six years and it appears to be working with monkey chants and banana throwing reduced to a tiny minority of moronic fans. From the days of the early 80s when black players were targeted, English football has moved to a more civilised level where black players are barely accused of anything other than blinding talent.

The thought of Terry playing in a prestige friendly at Wembley against the 2010 FIFA world champions is simply not acceptable after his regrettable outburst – and the way he attempted to wriggle out of the situation by getting Ashley Cole to enter the QPR dressing room on October 23, where the Chelsea captain assured Rio’s little brother: “We’re all okay, right?”

Terry then tried to explain his outburst was in response to Ferdinand accusing him of calling him a “fbc”... but Anton has since emerged to insist he did no such thing. The first Anton heard of the racist remark was when friends directed him to the YouTube footage. Ferdinand has since reported his side of the story to the FA and the Met Police have stepped in after a complaint from a member of the public.

But that is not the end of the matter. Chelsea fans in Genk, Belgium last week chanted further racist drivel against Anton and today the Sun and the Daily Telegraph in England reveal an “extremely graphic” death threat delivered by hand to QPR’s Acton training ground last Friday.

Police say Anton, 26, and “members of his close family” must now fit a panic alarms at their homes along with further “immediate precautionary measures”.

The Met are trying to track down the “sicko” who sent the death threat – club officials decided Anton himself should not read the contents.

In a further development – which I also revealed in my regular Monday morning slot on eNews in South Africa yesterday morning – England boss Fabio Capello has been instructed not to comment on the row.

On Saturday, Capello told the Sunday newspapers: “In my experience I have never seen, never heard and never found racism problems in England football. Racist problems between the players do not exist."

But Capello now appears to have been silenced – and the police have also urged Liverpool and Manchester United not to answer questions on the scandalous use of the n-word by Uruguayan Luis Suarez against Patrice Evra a week before the Loftus Road incident.

Amid a growing call to punish racism in sport – particularly after Tiger Woods’ ex-caddie Steve Williams was revealed to have used the words “black arsehole” against the golfer who earned him millions – Terry is likely to be withdrawn from the Spanish inquisition.

But reports suggest the 30-year-old from Barking, no stranger to controversy, will be recalled from the subsequent friendly against Sweden four days later. Terry's team-mate Frank Lampard looks likely to take the captain's armband against Spain - with memories of previous friendlies against the Iberians spoiled by racial chants.

Benni McCarthy Scores For QPR But Will They Take Him Off West Ham's Hands as the new loan ranger?

Benni McCarthy’s canny knack of scoring goals may have secured a loan move to Championship leaders Queens Park Rangers this week.

The 33-year-old, frustrated at current club West Ham where Avram Grant refuses to even grant him a place on the bench, was allowed to play in a reserve friendly for QPR against Spurs on Tuesday.

And South Africa’s all-time top-scorer promptly scored despite a heavy 9-2 defeat against a tough Spurs second string side that included Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane, England centre-back Jonathan Woodgate and young Jamie O’Hara.

Ironically, cash-rich West London outfit QPR – backed by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Formula One moguls Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briattore – could replace EastEnd strugglers West Ham in the Premier League in May.

McCarthy’s agent Rob Moore is believed to be “in talks” with QPR boss Neil Warnock. The deal appears to involve McCarthy moving on loan, with QPR paying most of his £50,000-a-week salary until May.

If he scores the goals to help QPR gain promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 1996, he will be signed on a full-term basis.

Warnock, a shrewd, experienced boss who gave up his day job as a chiropodist when he took non-League minnows Scarborough into the Football League way back in 1986, is urgently seeking a goal-getter for the second half of the season, having lost two strikers - Jamie Mackie and Patrick Agyemangboth – with broken legs before the New Year.

McCarthy was signed from Blackburn Rovers by Gian Franco Zola for £2.5m last January but a knee injury suffered on his debut wrecked his Upton Park career. By the time he had battled back to fitness, he had been fined for putting on weight by new club owner David Sullivan, missed the World Cup in his own country, and dour Israeli Grant had replaced the flamboyant Zola.

Despite assurances from his agent Moore that the Capetonian “has been at the right weight since October”, Grant rarely even gives McCarthy a glimpse of the bench. If he leaves this week, he will go without a single goal for West Ham’s first team. In a year, he has made just 13 appearances for West Ham, with 10 of those as a substitute.

Meanwhile Steven Pienaar’s transfer to Tottenham, first predicted by this writer three months ago, was confirmed on the club’s official website yesterday.

Pienaar, who will wear the No40 shirt at Spurs when Spurs play Newcastle on Saturday, twittered yesterday: “Saying final goodbyes at Everton tomorrow. It’s not easy after many great years. Thanks to all the fans, you have been brilliant.”

Pienaar said of his first appearance at Tottenham’s Chigwell training facility yesterday: “Friendly reception from players yesterday. Michael Dawson first to say hello then Rafa (van der Vaart, his former team-mate at Ajax in Amsterdam). Great to team up with him, he's been great this season.”