It seems strange that one of years most high profile court cases was best summed up by the closing lines of a man who many, including a number inside the courtroom, believed to lack intelligence. Ashley Cole ended his cross-examination by prosecution lawyer Duncan Penny - telling him, "We shouldn't even be sitting here."
With estimates putting the cost of Terry's trial at around six figures, surely the Crown Prosecution Service should have chosen, back in December, not to pursue this case, and instead to leave matters to The Football Association. I struggle to understand what compelled them to believe that this incident, where there was no concrete evidence regarding the way in which the words were said, was worthy of reaching this stage.
Having sat through four days of evidence including interviews, witness statements, character endorsements and hours of mind-numbing footage of an eight second period, I personally struggled to reach a solid conclusion as to what Terry said to Ferdinand, as evidently did District Judge Howard Riddle. His judgement on Friday sought to give the impression that nobody had committed any wrong-doings, and that the entire incident was simply a misunderstanding, a situation I could have predicted from Monday morning of this week.
This all comes down to the decision-making of the CPS. Terry's argument was consistent throughout and his line of defence at Westminster Magistrates Court should have come as no surprise, so why pursue it? Police notes record Justin Rigby, PR agent of both Ferdinand brothers, telling the police: "should the Crown Prosecution Service not charge John Terry I will be advising Anton Ferdinand to take out a civil claim." Ultimately though, this form of pressure, and the threatening of "ramifications" as Rigby put it, shouldn't be something that has an effect on the UK's criminal justice system.
Instead of an incident that should either have been sorted on the pitch by referee Chris Foy, or off it by The FA, or even the men themselves, we're now left in a huge mess following a court case that effectively consisted of playground taunts exchanged between grown men on a football pitch being slung around a courtroom. The judgement of Howard Riddle alone contained the word 'cunt' used 24 times, and variations of the word 'fuck' used 19 times.
The allegations of a racially aggravated public order offence are of course, serious, but this is a case that never should have reached this point.
The FA itself now sits in a precarious position where another decision must be reached regarding Terry, and both he and Ferdinand could face charges of 'foul and abusive language' and 'bringing the game into disrepute', despite revealing that this sort of language is commonplace on the pitches of Premier League grounds across the country. The decision also brings into question, once again, the England captaincy. Terry has now effectively been cleared of the charge that saw him stripped of the title in July, and as such, could be an option for Roy Hodgson, although perhaps more likely now as a second choice behind Steven Gerrard who many felt excelled in the role at Euro 2012.
The Crown Prosecution Service must have known all along that their case was fundamentally flawed - incomplete and weak. At a time when the use of taxpayers' money is coming under increased scrutiny, I see no way that the CPS can justify the thousands of pounds spent on a case that was always going to go one way: one that is both costly and fails to solve the issue at hand. The CPS must now answer the questions posed of them by this verdict, but of course they won't.
At the end of the day, John Terry walks without a conviction hanging over his head, the national game is still left with a problem, and the public end up thousands of pounds out of pocket. Who's the winner here?