Exclusive - Chelsea chairman confirms Terry to remain club’s captain

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has confirmed to talkSPORT that John Terry will remain the club’s captain.

Terry issued an apology this week after being given a four-game ban by a Football Association disciplinary panel for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand.

Speaking to the Weekend Sports Breakfast, Buck and Chelsea's chief executive Ron Gourlay revealed Terry had since been hit with a record fine by the club but ruled out taking the armband from the long-serving defender, who was cleared in a court of law over the incident with Ferdinand.

“John Terry will continue to be captain of the club,” said Buck. “The other question you’re likely to ask is whether we are going to suspend him for any matches, in addition to the four the FA suspended him for, and we are not.

“But we have taken disciplinary action. We think it is firm disciplinary action and appropriate for the circumstances. In setting the appropriate level of discipline we have kept in mind that a court of criminal law found him not guilty.

"Of course we note the FA decision and we certainly respect that decision and we have taken these factors and other factors in mind. We have consulted with the owner, Mr Abramovich, and this is not a decision we have taken lightly.

"We discussed it over a reasonably long period of time and we think we have taken appropriate disciplinary action in the circumstances."

Gourlay added: “What we have to take into consideration is John has played over 550 times for the football club and he has captained the side over 400 times. He has led the club and team tremendously during these games. I think he has received about five red cards in that period of time.

"We believe it was a lapse of judgement, it was out of character on the field for John. He did fall below the high standards that we expect at the football club. As the chairman said, we considered this over a long period of time. He has been disciplined by the club. It is a very, very heavy fine."

Chelsea have been accused of double standards after a supporter was banned from Stamford Bridge for life for racially abusing former striker Didier Drogba.

But Buck insists Terry’s case is completely different, pointing to the fact the supporter in question was found guilty in court of racial abuse.

“We do have a policy that we will ban fans for life if they are convicted in a criminal court of law," said Buck. "If they are not convicted in a criminal court of law we will take other action, which is usually barring them from the stadium for some amount of time.

"With John Terry, he wasn’t convicted in a criminal court of law and we have much more different kinds of disciplinary action we can take against him as distinguished from what we might take against a fan who has done something inappropriate in a stadium."