100% John Terry Is Not A Racist – Jose Mourinho

Friday, 28th September, 2012

Jose Mourinho has come out in defence of John Terry, insisting he is 100% sure that the Chelsea defender is not a racist.

Terry was found guilty of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers centre-back Anton Ferdinand by the English Football Association yesterday, despite having been cleared of the same charge by a court of law in July.

relatedNewsStory The FA have slapped a four-match ban on Terry and fined him £220,000 – he has 14 days in which to decide whether to lodge an appeal.

The defender should be involved in Chelsea’s Premier League clash against Arsenal tomorrow and Mourinho, who managed Terry when he was in charge of Chelsea, has come out in defence of his former player.

“He is not a racist. That’s 100%. We (Chelsea) had a squad where we had 12 African players in the squad. It was a fantastic squad and he had always a great relationship with every one of them”, Mourinho said in Mourinho Masterclass, scheduled to be shown by CNN on 5th October.

And the current Real Madrid manager has sympathy for Terry’s plight.

“But in football it can happen, and I know it can happen, that during a football match because sometimes it’s more than a game and sometimes you have reactions that don’t represent what you are really”, continued Mourinho.

“Probably, he had a racist comment or a “racist” attitude against an opponent and, sometimes in football, we look to our opponents in the wrong way.”

The Champions League-winning manager does believe there should be some punishment, but feels labelling Terry as a racist is wrong.

“But to pay, he has to be punished.

“But please, don’t say that he is a racist because I know what I am saying…Drogba will say, Geremi will say, Makelele will say, all of them will say that he is not a racist.”

Read our betting preview: Arsenal v Chelsea.