Former England head coach Roy Hodgson revealed that he was forced to choose between Rio Ferdinand and John Terry due to the racism case at the time. After England qualified for the 2012 European Championships, Hodgson had to decide between defender Ferdinand of Manchester United and center-back Terry of Chelsea, but given the pair’s extensive background and pedigree at the international level, Ferdinand’s exclusion was initially thought to be for “non-footballing reasons.” Terry was given a four-game suspension and a £220,000 fine by the Football Association after being accused of using racial slurs toward Rio Ferdinand’s brother Anton during a game between QPR and Chelsea at Loftus Road in October 2011.
“It goes without saying that the controversy surrounding the Anton Ferdinand and John Terry incident was a very hot topic at the time,” former England head coach Roy Hodgson said about Rio Ferdinand. “Rio and John couldn’t have gotten along, but after getting to know Rio a little better through a conversation I had with him a little later, I’m not so sure. But they did divide the media as well as the general public’s judgment of who was the better player. One had strong support from one group of newspapers, and the other received strong support from the other. We were worried that the hostility between the two newspapers and the two factions might cause us issues.”
In 2020, Anton Ferdinand took part in a BBC documentary called Football, Racism and Me that examined his confrontation with Terry. It was said that Terry had turned down Ferdinand’s requests to speak with him or appear on the programme. Terry, who had previously refuted the assertion, also claimed in an interview with The Times that he had spoken to Rio Ferdinand and Anton Ferdinand, the latter of whom had called Terry’s former international
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