TBH the whole issue is confused anyway. Mainly because footballers are so thick and the reporting of it is done by journos no smarter than the players.

Ferdinand is climbing on his high horse, but seeing as he has also been found guilty of a racial insult, and seeing as everything he has done against Terry in the last year has been behind the scenes, he really has no right to it.

If it's okay for black players to refuse to wear the t shirts, is it also okay for a white player to refuse because he thinks it's BS that this issue is being blown out of all proportion?

Fergie hasn't acted in the right way though has he? As much as I hate Ferdinand, its up to him whether he wants to wear the t-shirt. He doesn't have too. MOTD pundits were spot on.

Maybe Rio doesn't want racism kicked out of football so he can have the freedom to label Ashley Cole a 'choc ice'...?

seems none of you understand the issue about Ferdinand calling Cole a choc ice. It is a political rather than racial insult. In the same way as house lovely or uncle tom.

For you all to see the same words being used by a white man against a black man as opposed to a black man insulting another black man shows how clueless you are.

Then again reducing the issue of racism down to language is a very good middle class approach to discrediting the anti racist struggle.

By the way Ferdinand was right. Ashley Cole is a choc ice.

Indeed, at the end of the day, all that matters is Fergie's image. Not what Rio thinks, not what Rio believes, but Fergie being a little bit embarrassed, even though nobody on earth would have mentioned Fergie in the whole thing. Fergie wouldn't have a clue what Rio thinks, he's just a*sed about his image, just like the rest of football.

I don't think Fergie's image is all that important to him. The fact he's stuck two fingers up to the BBC for so long, the fact that he created pretty big problems at his club over the ownership of the horse show that he can be pig headed at a cost of his image.

Fergie hasn't really come out well in this. It was pretty dumb for him to nail his colours to all MU players wearing the shirt when it seemed more then likely that Ferdinand wouldn't be wearing it. And now that Ferdinand has clearly gone against him, he's caved pretty quick because he needs him in the short term.

Personally I think Fergie just finds the whole Jason Roberts situation a bit weird. He's a nothing footballer who practically no one would even give a second thought to, yet he's somehow managed to get a gig on 6-0-6 and MotD even though he's still "trying" to play.

Roberts is castigating KIO for not doing enough, even though the ban was clearly not anything to do with them. But the biggest problem for Roberts is that when John Terry was found not guilty in the court case he wrote a piece for the Daily Mail saying that everyone should move on and the case was closed. Of course now that Terry has been pursued even further it's not good enough for him, but that's just typical pundit BS. He said that the process should have ended after the court case, but let's just ignore that and pretend that he's been pushing for a huge ban from the start.

I don't think Fergie's image is that much of a preoccupation for him. But I think that's partly because he's got so many willing acolytes in the media willing to talk for him without prompting. Last week one of their young players just wrecked his brand new Range Rover on the first day he'd got the keys. The pr1ck tested over the drink drive limit. What was the press response? "OOOOOhhhhh, he's going to be in trouble with Fergie's famous hairdryer."

With the way you set yourself up as prosecutor and judge, the FA would love to talk to you about assisting on their future independent panels.

Why is Ashley Cole a choc ice?

Why is it okay for Rio Ferdinand to call him a choc ice?

Isn't Rio a complete FBC? (The main issue here would be the B, seeing that he is mixed race. Is it okay to call him a FMRC?)

Does anyone care what Rio thinks anyway? He should probably spend more time concentrating on his defending that what t-shirt he is wearing in the warm up. The man is a total liability nowadays. Should probably drop down a few leagues soon. To think some people wanted him back in the England set up.

#roywasright

To be fair to Rio. He may not be as good as he was, but he's still got more talent than Jason Roberts and Clarke Carlisle combined. In fact if you multiply their talent they'd probably still come up short.