Sepp Blatter starts Twitter war with Rio Ferdinand
Published 15:27 17/11/11 By MirrorFootball
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has become embroiled in a war of words with Rio Ferdinand on Twitter.
The Manchester United and England defender criticised Blatter for his outspoken comments on racism yesterday .
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Avid Twitter user Ferdinand, whose brother Anton is the subject of an ongoing racism investigation by the FA and police, responded:
"Tell me I have just read Sepp Blatter’s comments on racism in football wrong .... if not then I am astonished.
“I feel stupid for thinking that football was taking a leading role against racism – it seems it was just on mute for a while.
"Just for clarity if a player abuses a referee, does a shake of the hand after the game wipe the slate clean?”
When FIFA reacted to the furore caused by Blatter's comments by publishing a picture of him embracing a black man, Ferdinand tweeted:
"Fifa clear up the blatter comments with a pic of him posing with a black man..I need the hand covering eyes symbol!! "
Blatter took the unusual step this morning of replying directly to Ferdinand. The FIFA chief said:
"The ‘black man’ as you call him has a name: Tokyo Sexwale. He has done tremendous work against racism and apartheid in Africa...
"We have done several joint activities to raise awareness on the struggle against racism in South Africa...
"FIFA has a long standing and proud record in the area of anti-discrimination which will continue."
Blatter also tweeted a link to an article detailing FIFA's initiatives to combat racism .
UPDATE: Rio Ferdinand has in turn responded to Blatter, Tweeting:
"To say what you said about racism in football spoke volumes of your ignorance to the subject.
"I guess you now have the full support of all the women, gay community + people against racism in football....
"If we want 2 stamp out racism in society a football pitch is a good place to start-loved by billions of people around the world."
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