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Terry stays Chelsea skipper

John Terry decided not to appeal his four-game ban © PA Photos

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Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has confirmed in an interview with talkSPORT that John Terry will continue as club captain but has been subjected to "strong disciplinary action".

Terry this week announced that he would not appeal after the Football Association suspended him for four games and issued him with a £220,000 fine for racially abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand in October last year.

Chelsea announced that they would take internal action against Terry, but Blues boss Roberto Di Matteo pointedly refused to answer questions over the player's captaincy during a press conference on Friday, insisting the decision would only be revealed in the build-up to Tuesday's Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk.

However, Buck has now confirmed that Terry will continue as club captain, although he will be hit with "by far" the biggest fine the club has ever handed to a player. The Times believes it to be around £330,000.

Buck said on talkSPORT: "John will continue to be captain of the club. We have taken disciplinary action and we think it is firm disciplinary action and appropriate for the circumstances."

Buck said Chelsea had taken into consideration the fact that a court had found Terry not guilty of the charge earlier this year as it was unable to prove the words were said in an insulting manner beyond reasonable doubt.

Of the FA's decision, which was made on the balance of probabilities, Buck added: "We certainly respect that decision. We've kept these factors in mind, we've consulted with the owner Mr Abramovich. This is not a decision we've taken lightly. It's not a decision we took in a half-hour meeting. We discussed it over a long period of time and we think we've taken appropriate disciplinary action."

Buck said Chelsea would not be adding to Terry's suspension and hoped that there could now be some sense of closure over the matter.

He added: "We would like to draw a line under this but, by drawing a line under it, it does not mean we want to forget it. We know the Ferdinand family will remember it, we know John Terry will remember it, we know the media will remember it and we will remember it too."

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