The FA’s dithering over the John Terry racism accusation means bad blood has been dragged on into the fourth recent meeting between QPR and Chelsea this weekend. This shameful episode is one football could well do without.
The three league and cup meetings between Queens Park Rangers and Chelsea last season managed to encapsulate so much about what is wrong with football in this country.
The first game became so mired in an allegation that Chelsea’s John Terry had racially abused Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand that the former England captain found himself up in court during the summer facing criminal charges. He was acquitted, but even if he didn't call Ferdinand a "fucking black cunt" as the television pictures from the game suggest he did, the evidence presented to the presiding judge by the main parties involved paints a sorry picture of the way footballers behave on the field of play.
The court heard sordid tales of millionaires yelling at each other about who had already "shagged" whose wife, and who was planning to do so in the future, all of them unable to cough out a sentence without supplementing it with numerous "fucks" and "cunts". Terry will no doubt see the acquittal as a personal victory, and indeed several Chelsea fans cheered from the public gallery when the verdict was announced as if he'd just headed a stoppage time winner, but in reality everybody involved in the Westminster Magistrates Court hearing was a loser and the whole thing seemed like an expensive waste of time that accomplished nothing apart from dragging the sport through the sewer.
The original complaint about Terry's conduct was not filed by Anton Ferdinand, or anybody to do with Queens Park Rangers, but in fact an off duty police officer watching the game on his television. Nevertheless in the second and third meetings last season the Chelsea fans took to booing Ferdinand and chanting "you know what you are" – presumably insinuating that he is a liar, despite him being an innocent party in all of this and admitting from the start he didn't hear Terry say anything. In Stoke this moronic tribalism that sees football fans back their team's football players regardless of circumstance means Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey is booed whenever he touches the ball at the Britannia Stadium for the heinous crime of having his shin bone annihilated by a tackle from Ryan Shawcross two seasons ago. Sometimes football fans deserve the reputation they struggle to shift – these are two such occasions.
Because, scandalously, England still wanted to select John Terry for the European Championships in the summer the court hearing was put back, and back, and back again at his convenience, further cementing the view that in Britain it is one rule for you and I, and another one entirely for the rich and famous and particularly the footballers. Had I been accused of shouting out "you fucking black cunt" at the QPR v Chelsea match last season I very much doubt I'd have been able to delay my appearance at the magistrates court much later than the following Monday morning. It's also unlikely I'd have been given a week in front of a judge to present defence as irrelevant as a statement from Ryan Bertrand who was not even on the field at the time of the Terry incident and whose character reference basically amounted to the classic “I can’t be a racist, some of my friends are black”. It’s certain I wouldn’t have been allowed to continue attending football matches while waiting for the case to be heard, and highly unlikely that I’d have been acquitted.
But, like I say, one rule for one… While we waited for the court case Terry was able to return to Loftus Road for an FA Cup game and bounce around with a smile on his face "fronting up" the home fans who chanted things against him during stoppages in play. In the return fixture at Stamford Bridge he was free to head home the second of six Chelsea goals and celebrate as if released from decades of unfair incarceration and persecution. He was cheered to the rafters by the Stamford Bridge faithful.
Then, during the summer, he travelled with England to Poland and Ukraine for the European Championships. The BBC produced a Panorama documentary about the racist elements of football support in those countries, and then began every news bulletin during the tournament with a "no racism yet, maybe tomorrow" editorial line. England defender Sol Campbell said black or mixed race England fans who travelled to the tournament risked coming back in a coffin. The FA expressed concerns. Never once did anybody point out that England were the only team travelling to the tournament with a player who had an active criminal prosecution for racism hanging over his head.
Liverpool’s Luis Suarez wasn’t afforded such luxuries when he was accused of racially abusing Man Utd full back Patrice Evra. That incident took place just a week before Terry’s and the time from the moment Suarez was alleged to have uttered the word "negrito" towards the French full back through to the point where the FA threw the book at him and banned him for eight matches was just over two months. Rio Ferdinand had to wait even less time for his punishment for branding Ashley Cole a "choc ice" on Twitter for his defence of Terry in court during the summer. Strangely though, nearly a year on, we're still waiting for Terry to face FA charges. My theory expressed at the time that it's much easier to prosecute a toothy Uruguayan that nobody likes anyway than it is a former England captain holds more water with each passing day, week and month. Yes they had to wait for the criminal court case to finish, but why exactly are we still waiting now?
And then there's the bloody hand shakes. Was there ever a more pathetic, needless, empty, hollow gesture than making the footballers line up like school boys before each game to shake hands with opponents they're about to dive over and shout disparaging comments at? Especially as it’s all done while that infernal official Premier League theme music blares out in the background to reassure you that everything in Toon Town is wonderful after all.
Football believes everything is solved with a handshake – Sepp Blatter said as much himself – but this cringeworthy staging of them before games renders the whole thing meaningless, and only ever attracts attention when a player decides he doesn't want to partake in them. Still, it says something of Terry's character that there have only been three examples of players refusing to engage in this liberal nonsense and he's been involved in two of them.
The court case was brushed under the carpet until after the European Championships, the issue of Anton Ferdinand not wanting to shake Terry's hand was brushed under the carpet when the pre-match routine was cancelled in the build up to the second and third games last season and the FA hearing has been brushed under the carpet until after this fixture this week. It has been a fingers-in-ears, hope-it-all-goes-away approach from the FA since the incident took place and all they have succeeded in doing is breeding further resentment while making themselves look weak in the face of a big club and a big name player.
This entire thing should have been sorted out nine months ago for everybody’s sake, and yet here we are still reading newspaper stories about bloody handshakes again nearly a year later. Evening Standard columnist Patrick Barkley even suggested this week that those at QPR who refuse to shake Terry’s hand this weekend would owe him an apology were he to be acquitted by the FA despite neither the club nor Anton Ferdinand making a complaint against him in the first place - a classic example of the bullshit that's been allowed to build and fester over this ridiculously long period of time.
It's become fashionable recently to use the Olympics to bash football over the head with. Everybody wants to know why our football players aren’t more like Mo Farrah, Jess Ennis and Jonnie Peacock. The great and the good, along with the massed ranks of nobodies on Twitter, cannot wait to seize upon any moment of wonderful sporting achievement from a fantastic summer and compare it to the worst that football has to offer.
I remember when England won the rugby World Cup a similar thing happened, and our footballers were slated for not being more like Johnny Wilkinson for the next 18 months. Mercifully Wilkinson turned out to be a crock, his team mates quickly returned to their previous state of beer swilling public school boys prone to lighting each other’s farts, throwing dwarves around and molesting female members of hotel staff, and the country realised it didn't give a shit about rugby union after all.
The same will eventually happen with athletics which will go back to being played out very occasionally in front of four figure crowds at Crystal Palace and everybody will once again have to accept that, for all its failings and however much people would like it to be cycling or rowing or clay bastard pigeon shooting, football is the national sport of Great Britain and always will be.
For now though, the sport we all love will deserve any negative publicity that may come its way from this latest West London derby having brought the whole thing on itself.
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Team News: QPR will give home debuts to Esteban Granero and former Chelsea full back Jose Bosingwa, and a full debut to goalkeeper Julio Cesar who will replace Robert Green. Stephane M'Bia is also in line for his QPR bow after signing on a two year deal from Marseille. Mark Hughes' main injury doubt is Samba Diakite who was given time off to return to France recently to deal with a personal issue but has since returned to training. Anton Ferdinand left the Man Ciy defeat early but is expected to be fit to play.
Chelsea have doubts over Ashley Cole and John Terry who both sat out England's draw with Ukraine during the week but are apparently winning their battle to be fit for this game.
Elsewhere: Another weekend, another live West Ham match on the television. The Hammers feature seven times in the first three months despite the renowned tactics of manager Sam Allardyce making them one of the worst sides in the division to watch. This weekend they're at Norwich in the Saturday lunch time game, which doesn't immediately jump out as a must see classic. Sunderland v Liverpool is the Saturday evening game on ESPN and looks rather more intriguing.
Six matches kick off at 3pm with Man City 's awkward trip to Stoke probably the pick apart from the QPR Chelsea clash. Villa v Swansea which is a match up of teams who have started the season in markedly different form while Arsenal v Southampton and Man Utd v Wigan look like walkover home wins. Fulham v West Brom is difficult to excited about.
Reading v Spurs is the live Sunday fixture with Everton and Newcastle on Monday but overall, looking down the weekend's TV games, it's hard to understand why our clash at Loftus Road didn't make the cut.
Referee: Andre Marriner is the referee this weekend as he continues his ascension to the top of the elite officials list. The authorities gave a real statement of faith in the West Midlands based official when they gave him the title deciding Manchester derby last season and his unflappable approach and attitude has won him many admirers. He's now probably on an equal footing with Howard Webb for the big appointments. His full QPR case file is here.
QPR: QPR are hunting their first league win after losing two and drawing one of their first three. They have certainly placed a lot of faith in former Chelsea striker Mark Hughes, but he has only ever won two of 14 meetings with his former club as a manager. Bobby Zamora has scored in his last three starts for the R’s but has never scored in 11 appearances against Chelsea. Rangers’ 5-0 opening day home defeat to Swansea brought to an end a run of five consecutive home wins, and win-lose-win-lose sequence that had stretched for ten matches at the end of last season.
Chelsea: The Blues lead the fledgling Premier League table but have made a pretty erratic start to the season. Confident, competent and solid in victories against Wigan and Newcastle, porous and leaking goals in defeats to Atletico Madrid (4-1), Man City in the Community Shield (3-2) and in a fortuitous 4-2 home win against Reading. With the attacking midfielders they have at their disposal this season, and an early goal average of almost two strikes a game it would seem the best form of defence against Chelsea is attack. Eden Hazard was the headline summer capture and he is already starting to pay back his enormous transfer fee – Chelsea have had a penalty in all three league games so far and he’s won two of those while assisting four other goals besides. Some stats to cheer you up a bit – Chelsea have only won two of their last ten away games in the league and took less points from London derbies last season than any other capital team in the Premier League. If you’re considering a half time full time bet – bear in mind Chelsea have been drawing at half time just once in their last 12 outings.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Alex Rowe writes…
Too put in perspective how far we’ve come in the 11 months since that historic victory last October, we went off 10/1 to win that day and punters seem to really be with us this weekend. Early quotes of 11/2 are long gone and we’re now as short as 10/3 with some firms to win the first fixture every QPR fan will have looked for the day the fixtures were released.
Having put the family holiday back 48 hours to make sure I didn’t miss this fixture (amazingly I’m still married) I’ve so far resisted any temptation in having a bet in what will be a competitive West London derby. It's easy to get carried away letting your heart rule your head and use money set aside for the water bill to back the R’s in the hope the victory will be all the sweeter. My betting advice for this weekend’s game is to keep your powder dry, enjoy a game I’m sure will not disappoint and double your stake on QPR winning at Three Point Lane next Sunday.
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion Nathan McAllister writes…
Victories over Chelsea form many of my happiest childhood memories. I had my first season ticket as a five year old in 1978 and barely missed a home game until 1991 when my family moved away from London . I was there for the 6-0 win (Gary Bannister hat-trick) in 86, and for Sir Les’s first goals in a QPR shirt in the 4-2 win in 89. Hell, Rangers even won on my first two visits to Stamford Bridge in 1979 and again in 1980. Victories over Chelsea were commonplace in those days - but no less sweet for that as I hated them (and still do) with a passion that needs no explanation on here.
Saturday will mark the first QPR/Chelsea fixture I’ve attended since the early 90s –and we are all painfully aware how the power balance has shifted in West London since then. No-one can deny Tony Fernandes has put his hands deep into his pockets since taking over at the Bush, but compared to the billions (and counting) in wages and transfer fees Abramovich has pumped into Chelsea we’re still talking raindrops in the Pacific. As satisfying as it was to beat them last season it was galling that we did so despite being outplayed in the second half by nine men. The chances of repeating that unlikely victory against the Champions League winners (albeit obscenely fortunate ones) now boasting Europe’s arguably most outstanding young prospect in Eden Hazard are, well, slim.
But how slim, exactly? Well, going back over all of Chelsea ’s away league fixtures in the Abramovich era they have – discounting games against teams finishing in the top four - played 148, won 92, drawn 32 and lost 24. So, if you assume QPR are an average Premier League team who are likely to finish about halfway between fifth and twentieth that means our chances are: winning 16%, drawing 22% and losing 62%. With such a new team needing time to gel Rangers’ chances of a result are perhaps even smaller than that, and although there is ‘the Loftus Road effect’, after last season I think we may have lost the element of surprise there. Having said that, I did like the look of us in the second half at the Etihad – especially how our midfield started to look much more confident and fluid in possession - and although I think Chelsea will have too much for us here I’m hoping we’ll be able to take more positives out of this one.
Prediction: 2-1 Chelsea
Scorer: Zamora (got to go with the man in form)
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