There is an interesting plea in the case where Chelsea footballer John Terry is accused of racial abuse.
Terry's no doubt expensive lawyers have come up with the defence that when their client called fellow player Anton Ferdinand black, with the addition of extreme sexual expletives, he was merely using irony.
Without prejudicing any verdict to be delivered by chief magistrate Howard Riddle (great name, by the way, for a judge in a trial with semantics in play) it is clear that footballers regularly use figures of speech.
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