English football: QPR mulls appealing Ferdinand's ban

English football: QPR mulls appealing Ferdinand's ban

Thursday, October 30, 2014 12:59 pm


Queens Park Rangers are considering whether to appeal against defender Rio Ferdinand’s ban and fine for a comment he made on Twitter, manager Harry Redknapp said on Thursday.

Ferdinand, 35, was suspended for three games and fined £25,000 ($40,000, 31,800 euros) by the Football Association on Wednesday for referring to the mother of another Twitter user as a ‘sket’, a derogatory slang term for a promiscuous woman.

“I’ll have to sit down with chief executive Philip Beard and chairman Tony Fernandes and talk about the possibility of an appeal when we have the report (from the FA),” Redknapp told a press conference.

“We’ve not seen the report from the FA so we can’t really comment on it, to understand what he has done.

“Rio does know how to behave off the pitch. There are not many professionals better than Rio. But I am not in position to talk about it, because I have not seen any details.”

Ferdinand, whose ban takes immediate effect, was also “severely warned” about his future conduct by the FA and ordered to attend an education programme.

A Twitter user provoked the tweet that landed Ferdinand in hot water by sending him a teasing message on transfer deadline day that said: “Maybe QPR will sign a good CB (centre-back) they need one.”

Ferdinand replied: “get ya mum in, plays the field well son! #sket.”

The former Manchester United defender, who won 81 caps for England, is a member of a commission set up by FA chairman Greg Dyke to investigate how to improve English football.

Ferdinand, who said last week that he would probably retire from playing at the end of the season, has over 5.9 million followers on Twitter and is a prolific user of the social networking website.

Redknapp added: “I don’t know what Twitter is. I don’t want to know, to be honest. It doesn’t interest me one little bit. If I understood it, I might be able to talk about it.”


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