Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has claimed that ex-manager Alex Ferguson’s wife Cathy prevented his relationship with his old boss from being tarnished.
Writing in his upcoming autobiography #2sides, which is being serialised by The Sun, Ferdinand claimed that the incident in which he refused to wear a Kick It Out anti-racism campaign t-shirt raised the ire of Ferguson, who was furious with the former England international and was in the process of fining him.
Ferdinand refused to wear the t-shirt as he felt the campaign was insincere, given the treatment of his brother Anton Ferdinand following the alleged racist abuse aimed at him by John Terry.
Ferdinand wrote: “The Group had refused to come to the court so I was not willing to go through the charade of wearing their shirt, my parents would not have accepted it,” he wrote.
“When the manager found out he raged: ‘Who do you f***ing think you are? I have told everybody you would wear it.’
“I said: ‘You didn’t ask me. I was never going to wear it, I didn’t tell you to go on TV and say I would.’
“He said: ‘That’s it, you are fined a week’s wages.’
“The next day I had to go and see him. He was sat down, I was standing. He said: ‘Look, I know it is your family but I just didn’t agree with you. You have got to support causes like this. I am a union man.’
“Then he said: ‘I talked to my wife, and she said did you ask the boy? When I said I didn’t, she said: there’s your mistake then. I don’t often admit mistakes, but I am not going to fine you.
“’I should have spoken to you, that is my mistake and I accept that. I still believe you should have worn it, but I respect that you didn’t.’”
Anton Ferdinand refusing to shake the hand of John Terry. Rio branded the former England captain an “idiot”.
Ferdinand also spoke of how he was disappointed in the behaviour exhibited by John Terry and Terry’s Chelsea teammate Ashley Cole.
Ferdinand wrote: “For me the biggest idiot will always be John Terry.
“As England captain and my centre-back partner he could have saved everyone a lot of pain by admitting immediately he used the word in the heat of the moment, but was no racist. I think that’s probably what happened and what the truth is.
“Anton and I would’ve accepted that – instead he never gave us a chance. That was the betrayal. He tried to run away from what he had done.”
In regards to Ashley Cole, Ferdinand added that his “head nearly blow off” when Anton informed him that his fellow England defender would be defending Terry in court, as the pair had “knew each other since [they] were kids”.
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