Chelsea and England captain Terry has been charged with racially abusing QPR defender Ferdinand in a league game in October and Terry is due in court next week. Terry denies wrongdoing.
The Football Association agreed after talks with the two clubs that no handshakes would take place before the game “in an attempt to further diffuse tensions” but it was still a hostile atmosphere for Terry, who was roundly booed by home fans.
After the initial hullabaloo, the actual match failed to spring to life, with QPR struggling to create chances. Chelsea finally broke the deadlock on 62 minutes through Juan Mata’s penalty after Clint Hill was harshly adjudged to have pushed Daniel Sturridge.
Chelsea, who lost in-form midfielder Ramires to a potentially serious-looking injury, deserved to win in the scrappy encounter, and were fairly comfortable at the end against their fellow London top-flight side.
Defender Ferdinand, who media reports said had a bullet sent to him in the post this week, was consistently cheered amid extra security at Loftus Road, but he seldom wandered forward, so rarely came face to face with opposing centreback Terry.
Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas had said yesterday that the two of them should shake hands but the FA will hope the decision to avoid a handshake at the start helped take some of the sting out of the situation.
There was an incident with a fan in the crowd when the referee stopped the game momentarily to talk to a steward amid continued chanting against Terry, but no major problems were reported. — Reuters
