Head of football's anti-discrimination body Kick It Out doesn't like being used as a 'punchbag' by Rio Ferdinand
The head of football's anti-discrimination body Kick It Out has responded to attacks by Rio Ferdinand in his autobiography by saying it deserves better than to be his "punchbag".
In serialisations of his book #2sides, which is published on Thursday, the former England and Manchester United defender claims Kick It Out had refused to go into court with the family during the John Terry racism trial involving his brother Anton Ferdinand. Terry was acquitted in court but later banned for four matches by the Football Association for racially abusing the younger Ferdinand.
In his book, Ferdinand - now at QPR - writes he initially refused to wear a Kick It Out T-shirt because "The group had refused to come to the courtroom with us, so I wasn't willing to go through the charade of wearing their shirt. My parents probably wouldn't have spoken to me if I had."
Ouseley told the Guardian: "Unfortunately we are the punchbag for some people and it's easy to have a punchbag like us."
He added later to Press Association Sport: "We don't like being Rio Ferdinand's punchbag. It was very unfair. I have no hang-ups about being criticised but it has to be based on fair and accurate information.
"I just want to put the record straight. We had someone there with the family in court every day - Anton Ferdinand's club [QPR] wasn't there, his union wasn't there every day, but we were. Was Rio himself even there?
"We gave as much support as we could give, we could not do any more, we had no power to do so. We spoke to the club and the police and had meetings. If the clubs had acted properly in the Terry case and the Suarez case we would not have had all this grief."