Former West Ham and Queens Park Rangers footballer Anton Ferdinand has been racially abused on social media after releasing an anti-racism documentary.
The 35-year-old, who was allegedly racially abused by former Chelsea and England captain John Terry in 2011, took part in a new BBC documentary to analyse football’s problem with racism, in which he draws on his own experiences and talks about the infamous incident nine years ago for the first time.
Addressing the release, Ferdinand said on Twitter: "In the doc, I explore the issue of racial abuse in the game, talking about my own experiences for the first time and what can be done to help players coming through today!"
Titled ‘Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism and Me’, the documentary will be shown on BBC One next Monday, and will feature how the 2011 incident impacted on Ferdinand’s career in a way that he wasn’t aware of at the time. Terry denied the allegation and was found not guilty in court, but he was given a four-game ban by the Football Association and a £220,000 fine.
But in a response to the post, Ferdinand was targeted with racist abuse as one user replied with banana and monkey emojis.
The post has been reported to Twitter and appeared to be from an anonymous account, but at time of writing remains available to view on the social media site.
The incident between Terry and Ferdinand caused significant controversy in the English game, with Terry falling out with then-England defensive partner Rio Ferdinand and announcing his retirement from the national team as his position with the FA had become “untenable”.
The sick response to Ferdinand’s post follows a number of calls for social media platforms to crackdown on racism, with several black and mixed raced footballers reporting abuse they receive that goes unpunished.
Earlier this week, Arsenal and Leeds United united to condemn “vile” racist abuse that was sent to both Nicolas Pepe and Ezgjan Alioski after both were subjected to abusive messages following their clash in Sunday’s 0-0 draw, which saw the former sent off for headbutting the latter.
