This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Rio Ferdinand has responded to Kick It Out’s criticism of him by describing football’s leading anti-racism organisation as “pointless”.

In an interview with the Guardian on Wednesday, Herman Ouseley, the chairman, defended the organisation after Ferdinand described them as “useless” in his book #2sides over its handling of the race trial involving his younger brother, Anton, and John Terry.

The former England captain stated his decision not to wear a Kick It Out T-shirt in defiance of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United was taken out of principle because the group had “refused to come to the courtroom with us, so I wasn’t willing to go through the charade … My parents probably wouldn’t have spoken to me if I had.”

This was strongly denied by Ouseley, who insisted that a member of Kick It Out had been in court every day with Ferdinand’s parents, Julian and Janice, and that the organisation had been used as a “punchbag”.

In response, Ferdinand tweeted a message on Thursday morning which repeated his assertion about the T-shirts.

“Ask me to wear a kick it out t-shirt but you won’t wear one yourself to represent the organisation..... #InvisibleSupport pointless,” he wrote.