Revealed: What Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson told Arsenal defender Gabriel

 

The Arsenal defender accused Jordan Henderson of racist abuse in their 3 2 win over Liverpool earlier this month. 

According to Martin Samuel:

Jordan Henderson called Gabriel a ‘f*cking idiot’ which the Arsenal defender misheard and thought he used a much worse Portuguese slur.

What an absolute shambles. Henderson’s name dragged through the mud for a nothing comment. 

No reasonable proof to charge Henderson 

As John Terry discovered, the balance of probability threshold for Football Association charges is far lower than in a court of law.

It is why in 2012 he was found guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand by the FA, but not at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Balance of probability, however, works both ways. So with no hard evidence beyond claim and counter-claim, the FA had little option but to drop any case against Jordan Henderson for what passed between him and Arsenal defender Gabriel. 

Henderson is believed to have told the investigation he called Gabriel a ‘f****** idiot’. Gabriel believed he used another, far worse word in Portuguese. None of the other players questioned, from Arsenal or Liverpool, could confirm. Nobody asserted Gabriel was insincere, merely mistaken.

So now, the balance of probability. For Henderson to use such a word would demonstrate a command of Portuguese-Brazilian dialect that he simply does not possess. 

So we would have to believe he researched how best to offend — despite being the admired captain of a cosmopolitan Liverpool dressing room — or been taught by one of his Brazilian or Portuguese team-mates, half of whom are of ethnic origin. On the balance of probability, therefore, the accusation goes away.