• Premier League

Terry handed four-game ban

ESPN staff
September 27, 2012
John Terry was found guilty of misconduct on Thursday © PA Photos
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Chelsea captain John Terry has been banned for four games after being found guilty of a Football Association misconduct charge.

An Independent Regulatory Commission also fined the former England defender £220,000 after he was found guilty of 'using abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour', a charge stemming from an altercation with Anton Ferdinand during Chelsea's Premier League game against QPR last season.

Terry was found not guilty of racial abuse in a London magistrates court in July, a charge that emerged from the same incident. While Terry admitted to using some racially-charged phrases during the hearing, he insisted he had only repeated back to Ferdinand what Ferdinand thought he had already said.

Terry retired from international football last week, saying the FA's decision to charge him had made his position "untenable".

"The decision of the Independent Regulatory Commission is as follows," an FA statement read. "Mr Terry be suspended from all domestic club football until such time as Chelsea's first feam have completed four competitive matches, and he is also fined the sum of £220,000."

Despite receiving his ban on Thursday, Terry will still be available for Saturday's Premier League contest against Arsenal - as he has up to 14 days from the day he receives the full written reasons for the decision to lodge a formal appeal.

"The penalty is suspended until after the outcome of any appeal, or the time for appealing expires, or should Mr Terry decide not to appeal," the statement continued. "The reason for this is to ensure that the penalty does not take effect before any appeal so that Mr Terry has an effective right of appeal."

Terry's representatives said he was "disappointed" at the verdict, but would take his time over whether or not to appeal.

"He has asked for the detailed written reasons and will consider carefully before deciding whether to lodge an appeal," said in a statement on the player's behalf.

The prosecution in Terry's London court case had been unable to prove that he had called Ferdinand a "f****** black c***'' as an insult. He claimed to have been repeating words he thought Ferdinand had accused him of saying.

Delivering his verdict after a five-day trial at Westminster Magistrates Court, Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle said: "Even with all the help the court has received from television footage, expert lip readers, witnesses and indeed counsel, it is impossible to be sure exactly what were [all] the words spoken by Mr Terry at the relevant time."

Announcing his decision to retire from international football on Sunday - a decision England manager Roy Hodgson said he had "reluctantly" accepted - Terry said: "I am making this statement in advance of the hearing of the FA disciplinary charge because I feel the FA, in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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