Doug Ward

Thu 1 April 2021 11:05, UK

Michael Stewart claims the BBC Radio Scotland clip of him that went viral was “heavily-edited” after the ex-midfielder was criticised for his response to Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara being allegedly racially abused.

Rio Ferdinand called for former Hibs and Hearts midfielder Stewart to “educate” himself when he failed to throw his support behind Kamara in the wake of an alleged racist incident involving Slavia Prague player Ondrej Kudela.

Stewart has not tweeted in almost a month but broke his silence on Friday with a post on the Medium website.

In that post, Stewart suggested Rangers applied pressure on him by retweeting Ferdinand’s criticism and also admitted he could have worded his response to the Kamara-Kudela incident better at the time.

Stewart wrote: “A couple of weeks ago, I found myself at the centre of one of those storms, when Rio Ferdinand and his brother Anton criticised me on Twitter. Those posts were shared widely, with Rangers Football Club’s official account applying more pressure by retweeting Rio’s criticism.

“What had I done wrong? Well, I had commented, the day after, on the disheartening scenes at Ibrox, where Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara had accused Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela of racially abusing him.”

Stewart then recounted what he said on BBC Radio Scotland in the wake of the incident. He said at the time: “Slightly uncomfortable with going full steam ahead (in passing judgement or sentence) when we don’t know definitively what has happened yet.”

Stewart then recalled the tweets from Rio and Anton Ferdinand before continuing to say: “The tsunami of in-bound replies was not especially pleasant. Rather than quickly respond and just pour more fuel on the fire. I chose to take some time off to reflect on what I had actually said.

“Had I prefaced my comments with my long-held view that any form of racism or discrimination is completely unacceptable, I may have tempered the response. I made the mistake of assuming that everybody would not only know that is how I feel but also would have heard me saying it only a few seconds later. I was encouraged by the numerous private messages from respectable people who clearly did hear what was being said though. This was the catalyst for me to write something about the wider issues surrounding important public debates.

“Considering I have condemned any form of discrimination in the past, I found the criticism difficult to take from Rio Ferdinand and his brother who I have the utmost respect for and who have done a great deal of work to highlight the issue of racism within sport and wider society.

“I wonder now if they had actually listened to the clip they shared or, like so many of us, had they only seen or heard what they wanted to hear after having been made aware of my heavily-edited comments?”

Fess up, Michael

When talking about racism in football, it’s very important to listen to what black players have to say.

Rio Ferdinand was one of the biggest names in world football during his playing days and remains a big deal now in his punditry career.

As for Anton Ferdinand, he was alleged to have been racially abused on the football pitch by John Terry. While the Magistrate’s Court found Terry not guilty, the FA’s independent inquiry found that he was.

Anton Ferdinand has been through what Kamara is going through right now. We are not in a place to talk over players who’ve had the experiences he’s had.

Stewart’s words after the Kamara incident were baffling and that was mainly because he was the only person in the Scottish media (that we are aware of) who was willing to give Kudela some benefit of the doubt.

Yes, Stewart did say that if Kudela’s found to have racially abused Kamara then he should be punished accordingly but what else does Stewart want to see other than what happened on the pitch at Ibrox last month?

As for him pointing the finger at Rangers in his new statement, that just shows this pundit’s agenda. Was there any need for it? Did Rangers’ decision to retweet Rio Ferdinand’s tweet apply any extra pressure?

Rangers have 622,000 followers on Twitter. Ferdinand spoke to the masses when he tweeted about Stewart with the ex-Manchester United man having 10.9million.

In other Rangers news, ex-Celtic man Tony Watt has hit out at Slavia Prague over their latest statement.