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John Terry: still not off the hook on racism charges

Chelsea's defender John Terry (L) reacts

Chelsea’s defender John Terry (L) reacts after receiving a red card from Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir (C) during the UEFA Champions League second leg semi-final football match Barcelona against Chelsea at the Cam Nou stadium in Barcelona on April 24, 2012. AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images

The British courts have had their say on all this John Terry ugliness over alleged racism. Now England’s Football Association will have something more to say about it, apparently.

This is all about the former England captain and what he did or did not say to Anton Ferdinand during a match last fall. Important here is that the Football Association’s burden of proof will be far less stringent than the British courts’. So the Chelsea center back will now worry over a potential suspension.

I won’t have any pertinent details past what you can find here in the story from England’s Daily Mail … but I will say this:

If you wanted to bury a particularly unattractive story anywhere in Great Britain in the summer of 2012 – I mean, bury it deep into the news hole abyss and cover it with a dump truck full of media earth and soil – today is absolutely the day you’d pick.

To put a finer point on it, the story broke about three hours before the opening ceremonies for the London Olympic Games, otherwise known as the most massive undertaking in and around post-World War II London.

Maybe it’s the journalistic cynic in me, but I just cannot see this as 100 percent coincidence. So, well done, FA, I suppose.