Chelsea Branded Hypocrites

The club made a mockery of their boast of a “zero tolerance” approach by only fining John Terry for his racial rant at Anton Ferdinand. Terry will not even be stripped of the captaincy — despite putting Chelsea in the middle of a racist storm for almost a year.

The slap-on-wrist approach is in stark contrast to the life ban the club handed to fan Stephen Fitzwater, who racially abused former Blues star Didier Drogba. At the time of Fitzwater’s punishment, a Stamford Bridge spokesman said: “Chelsea and the majority of our fans abhor all forms of discrimination. They have no place in our club or our communities.” It was a more tempered statement yesterday as they only announced Terry had been subject to “disciplinary action” for abusing Ferdinand at QPR last year.

The Chelsea star decided NOT to appeal against his four-game FA ban and £220,000 fine, and apologized having been captured on camera mouthing offensive words in his angry clash with defender Ferdinand. But instead of following their own example, the SW6 side responded by saying it “appreciates and supports John’s full apology for the language he used — such language is not acceptable and fell below the standards expected of John as a Chelsea player”. And that response clearly falls well below the high ideals of the club’s much-vaunted mission statement on its attitude to racism.

That statement reads: “Chelsea Football Club practices a zero tolerance policy towards racism at Stamford Bridge and takes a leading role in all the anti-racist campaigns. The European champions are so committed to stamping out racism that last year they threatened supporters with the severest of consequences if they were caught racially abusing players and fans of London rivals Tottenham. Superstar midfielder Frank Lampard even made a short film to plead with supporters to stop the racist chanting that has long marred clashes between the two teams.

And Chelsea backed that up, saying: “We have and always will take the strongest actions against anyone found making any kind of discriminatory chant or taunt.” But those defiant words will now be held up to ridicule — a day before Chelsea travel to White Hart Lane to face Spurs in this weekend’s big Premier League clash.

Fans get banned for life, players escape with a fine and a reprimand. Chelsea’s explanation is that Fitzwater was found guilty “beyond all reasonable doubt” in a criminal prosecution while Terry was not.

The former England captain was cleared of criminal charges at Westminster Magistrates Court. Chelsea stress that it was an independent FA Commission that found him guilty of charges, not a court of law. And the club took Terry’s long and loyal service into consideration when deciding how to deal with their captain. No one would say any of that on the record last night, though, so boss Robbie Di Matteo will now be confronted with some searching questions at his pre-match Press conference at Chelsea’s training ground this lunchtime