John Terry racism trial: Ashley Cole defends his team mate

Ashley Cole says that we really shouldn't be having this trial referring to a post match meeting where John Terry met with Anton Ferdinand and both shook hands after agreeing there was nothing more than "handbags".

Ferdinand re-considered his position after his girlfriend replayed You Tube footage of the Terry incident on her cell phone where the Chelsea captain was seen mouthing off using racial epithets which he does not deny using.

Terry's contention is that he was just sarcastically replaying the words that Anton Ferdinand thought he had mistakenly used. He claims there was no racist intent or malicious singling out of Ferdinand's race. That is the heart of the matter and the judge will have to decide for or against Terry on those grounds. The defense, on the other hand, contends that Terry snapped after being slagged off by Ferdinand for bonking his former team mate Wayne Bridge's missus. The whole altercation began when Terry tried milking a penalty after both players bumped into each other on the pitch.

It's not just Cole but a whole bunch of Chelsea players from Salomon Kalou to Fernando Torres coming out in support of their captain. Even Jose Mourinho in a written statement said, "I'm certain John Terry is not a racist."

Calling someone a racist is based on a body of work, on incontrovertible evidence of racist words and actions, that lead to a trail. Now, Terry may not be a racist but there is well established proof that he's an arseh**e who thrives on getting a rise. Using racist language is one way of doing it.