Free #2Sides: My Autobiography by Rio Ferdinand

so much pressure on it. It’s a question of solidarity. He was seeing it from a team perspective: ‘we do everything together, why are you going out on your own?’ I understand that because he wants to win and he wants to show that we’re united as a squad. But he hadn’t asked me how I felt.
    But then Fergie’s a man of principle and substance, and there aren’t too many like that. One thing I can’t bear is the people in positions of influence who just pay lip service, like FIFA with their ‘RESPECT’ and stupid fines. I just don’t believe they’re sincere. People like Sepp Blatter and others in positions of power who fail to make the right decisions. After the Suarez and Terry incidents, Blatter said a handshake between the two players should be enough to settle an argument when it comes to racial insults! Just shake hands and walk away, he said. What an idiot! I hammered Blatter on Twitter for that. Here was the head of our game, and he obviously doesn’t understand it at all. Other people criticised him as well and he had to backtrack. Hopefully he educated himself alittle bit. A year or so later, in Italy, the AC Milan team walked off a pitch in solidarity with Kevin Prince Boateng when he was insulted by racist fans. First Blatter said Boateng was wrong to do it. Later, he invited him to Zurich and praised him. It would be nice to think Blatter finally understood the issue. But my impression was that was all public relations.
    Here, Kick It Out and Show Racism The Red Card had their chance to shine but they didn’t take it. They weren’t alone.
4. TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
    ‘Deal with it…’ What does that mean exactly? I’ve spoken about the shortcomings of individuals and authorities. But as a family we weren’t too keen on some of the approaches on the other side of the argument either. It was an emotional time and some idiots were saying ‘you should go round John Terry’s house and beat him up’ or ‘send someone round to fuck him up.’ I just got cross about that. Are you crazy? That’s not the way to do things! That’s not what we are about! We’re not that type of family! Meanwhile, people in the black community were saying ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ or ‘Rio has to do something politically.’ But we never
ever
wanted to make it a political thing about blacks versus whites.
    There were also plenty of discussions going on between black footballers about how to ‘deal with’ the situation. People like Jason Roberts and Darren Moore were passionate about getting more black people with powerful voices and status in the game to be involved with decision-making. I totally agreed that something had to change. In the past the FA have cherry-picked people they can dictate to and use as puppets. It would be better to have people inside the power structures who the black community can trust and respect.
    One of the reasons I agreed to work on the FA commission on the future of the national team was to understand the organisation better and to get closer to the people making decisions. Who were they? I wanted to identify them.
    It also bothered me that, when it comes to questions of discrimination, there were no players of the current generation involved in making decisions. I’m talking here about players of every color and creed and culture. For example, when it came to my ‘choc ice’ tweet, why did the FA turn to Lord Ouseley as an ‘expert’? The FA should have been consulting people who are closer to our generation and have a better understanding of today’s language. Words that meant something in his generation have a totally different meaning for mine. They used his interpretation. When I went to the hearing, I said: ‘Why is Lord Ouseley even part of this conversation? He’s an old man who’s got no idea what we mean.’ But it wasn’t his fault. He was asked a question which he answered in the most honest way he could, I’m sure. It’s complex because there are many