Re: Suarez (merged)
What people, including the Scousers, fail to realise here is that the Suarez situation and the current Terry situation are different, and have different burdens of proof attached to them.
Terry has had criminal charges brought against him, he will appear in front of magistrates in a court of law. As such it has to be proven, beyond all reasonable doubt, that he made racist comments for him to be found guilty of the charges he's facing. He is, as they say, innocent until PROVEN guilty.
Suarez has been charged by the FA under their own, internal, rules and laws. This is, essentially, an employment tribunal and as such the charge does not need to be proven BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT. Those hearing the case need only be convinced that it is likely that the accused actual committed the offence with which they are being charged.
What this means is that, in Terry's case, the CPS needs to provide the magistrates with conclusive proof that he made racist comments. With Suarez the FA need only provide the panel with enough information to make it likely Suarez made racist comments. There need not be TV footage clearly showing him saying it, they do not need multiple individuals to coroborate Evra's version of events. They simply need to listen to both sides of the story and assess, on balance, whether it's more likely that Suarez called Evra "Negrito" in a racist manner or whether he called him "Nebrito" in a none racist manner (whether he actually said it or not isn't up for debate as Suarez's camp have always claimed it was Suarez's lack of understanding of English culture that was to blame and not that he had never used the word in the first place). The Panel have obviously decided that it's more likely Suarez was being racist, and thus have found him guilty.
On the Terry front it is entirely possible that, due to the lesser burden of proof required by the FA for a guilty verdict, that he could be found innocent in a court of law (unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt) yet guilty at the FA hearing (likely he was racist). Obviously there's also the concern that the FA will use any innocent court verdict to hide behind and drop the charges against Terry claiming "he's innocent" when "not proven sufficiently" could be a more accurate description.
