Red666

I said yesterday that I think from now on, if anything like this happens again, that The FA have to either adopt the beyond reasonable doubt approach. Or hand it over to an authority, be it the courts, that can. In my mind they are not fit enough to impartially rule on these things. You have chairmen, and board members of rival clubs that are also members of The FA board.

The decisions that they make, based on subjectivity, are likely to have a huge effect on a players ability to find work, their income and reputation.

Forget the courts and the FA

Garth Crooks, Sol Campbell, Rio & Paul Elliot...will be the judge and jury

red_man23

Good call Totally agree

TVJ

Don;t forget Jason Roberts and Clarke Carlisle. They were professional rent a gobs during the Suarez affair. Funny that they've been strangely quiet since the Terry verdict has been announced.

redman........

I totally agree but can't see it happening.

But there could be an independent panel an FSA for the football sector if you like.

Mourinho's

Yeah that'd be an idea, an independent panel .

You've got to bear in mind that Terry hasn't been acquitted because his innocence has been proven. He's been acquitted because there was a lack of evidence. For me, after the Suarez debacle, The FA have to act. It would stink of hypocrisy and xenophobia if they were the brush this under the carpet.
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The Fa punished Suarez because in the end they decided that his version of events and the inconsistencies in what he said led them to believe that in all probability he was lying.

The judge made a point yesterday of saying that JT was a credible witness and that despite a thourough investigation from three different parties is was impossible to come to the conclusion that Terry was lying.

Therefore the FA can not say any different. They will probably hit both players with a disrepute charge and give Ferdinand a one match ban and Terry a 3 match ban, but they can not possibly punish Terry on a racial abuse charge after the comments the judge made as they are complete contrast as to what the FA said about Suiarez.

Also, I think it is fair to say that had the Suarez case gone to a magistrate court he would have been found not guilty,all though of course we can not be certain of this.

My conclusion is that the FA should categorize certain charges as very serious and farm such cases to an independent legal body.

They are not fit to judge on serious charges.

Mourinho's

The big difference between Suarez' testimony and Terry's was that Suarez was asked to rely on memory, had to have his testimony translated and judgment was made on his demeanour and way he testified. Terry was able to view video evidence, was speaking his native language, without it needing translating, and assumptions weren't made about how he came across when giving evidence.

This, I think, is also the big difference between testifying in a court of law, and not to an FA panel.

The judge also said that Ferdinand was a credible witness. Yet had it been Evra in the witness stand, instead of in front of a panel, questions would have been asked about the discrepencies in his testimony.

"My conclusion is that the FA should categorize certain charges as very serious and farm such cases to an independent legal body.

They are not fit to judge on serious charges".

Agree with that completely .

see my previous comment

is was impossible to come to the conclusion that Terry was lying.

led them to believe that in all probability he was lying.
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But in both cases which ever way its worded there must be some probability??

low probability..........high probability

RED - some very sensible comments there.

I think the FA have to hand out a punishment for disrepute. Given what they said in the Suarez case that mentioning a person's colour is forbidden in whatever circumstances, does that mean that merely repeating what Ferdinand said makes Terry guilty? He uttered the words regarding skin colour.

I'm not someone who wants a player punished just because I don't happen to like him, so I see no reason to punish Terry if it's unjustified. I think the FA opened a can of worms with the Suarez case and unfortunately it's impossible on here to have an opinion if you're a Liverpool supporter and genuinely think the outcome was wrong, without everyone jumping all over you as being biased just because it's your player.

low probability..........high probability
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exactly in both cases and 2 different outcomes.

Two different outcome easily explained though!

Two different outcome easily explained though!
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Yeah, that the FA aint got a clue, explains it all.

low probability..........high probability
....

But both not good enough in a court if law

The key word here is proof

The FA are not qualified or set up to charge and punish a player for this type of offence.

For such a serious charge, how can it be right that there is such a low burden of proof?

The FA have simply applied the same judgement criteria that they use for the more generic charges they are used to dealing with on a day to day basis.

This is what needs to change.

The real problem, as I have stressed several times is that how can 2 players in the same profession, in the same environment, both representatives of the Prem be accused of the same crime yet be dealt with by two different bodies.

It would be a bit like a man from the crowd reporting a bad tackle to the police.

The FA haven't got a clue

But both not good enough in a court if law

The key word here is proof
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But as things stand, the two different outcomes are perfectly understandable and reasonable.

What is not reasonable is that a verdict and punishment for such serious charges should require a low burden of proof.

The FA had no choice though.

The Terry case was reported to the police, the Suarez case was not.

What the FA needed was a place to refer the Suarez case to, maybe they should set up a racial discrimination panel. but as it stands they can not be blamed for the two cases being treated diferently

You can't say that the 'FA can't be blamed for treating the two cases differently' when they still haven't done their own ruling on the case. Should they dismiss it out of hand then they will have dealt with them differently. They had no choice about one going to court and not the other, but they still have a responsibility to treat both cases equally by setting aside the court ruling and dealing with what infringements occured regarding 'their' rules.

Mourniho's

"as it stands they can not be blamed for the two cases being treated diferently"

I see where you're coming from. If you took away the judicial process and the fact the Terry case was reported to the police. How do you think The FA would find Terry, using the same practice they did in the Suarez case. This is bearing in mind what we know about the Terry case.

Terry has been cleared of a public order offence, he hasn't been cleared of misconduct on the field of play.