LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The feud between Anton Ferdinand and John Terry continued on Saturday when the Queens Park Rangers defender ignored the Chelsea captain in the pre-match handshake just before the 0-0 Premier League draw at Loftus Road.
Ferdinand also shunned Chelsea defender Ashley Cole, who gave evidence on his team mate's behalf when Terry was located not guilty in court in July of racially abusing the QPR player during the corresponding league fixture final season.
Rangers skipper Park Ji-sung also refused to shake Terry's hand on two occasions, throughout the pre-match ritual and at the coin toss.
Saturday's meeting was the first in between the west London rivals because the court situation.
The FA ruled on Friday the handshake would go ahead as typical after it was abandoned in an FA Cup tie in between the teams in January and was also dropped once they met in the return league match in April final season at Stamford Bridge.
Roberto Di Matteo, manager of league leaders Chelsea, stated the media were responsible for the hype surrounding the handshake prior to the game.
"Of course there are going to become emotions operating high within a game like this due to the rivalry between the two clubs but I think all the players available nowadays behaved quite professionally and showed the proper attitude," he said.
"As far as we're concerned our players offered their hands and if somebody on the other side does not need to acquire it then we move on.
Concentrate ON FOOTBALL
"But I think the media can play a large component in stopping writing and talking about it and focus a lot more on the football which everyone loves," the Italian added.
QPR manager Mark Hughes repeated right after the game what he has mentioned a lot of times just before - that he believed the handshake ritual really should be scrapped - and added he was pleased together with the way his new-look group performed and was satisfied using a point from the game.
"Chelsea are the European champions and they brought on us troubles today but if we had taken our probabilities, which we created several, we could possibly have taken the 3 points," said Hughes, a former Stamford Bridge team mate of Di Matteo's.
"The crucial thing for me would be to make the confident the improvement in functionality continues and that happened nowadays," he added of Rangers who have yet to record a win in four league games this season.
"I didn't truly see the handshake, I was coming down the tunnel with Roberto. It was a thing everybody else was focusing on but we weren't.
"My players had a discussion just before the game and I was created conscious that a few of them had been ready to shake hands and some weren't. I didn't get involved in that and I did not push the point," said Hughes.
"It was a personal choice for everyone involved...but i just believe this element with the 'Respect' campaign creates far more issues than it solves. I do not think that was the intention when the campaign was introduced."
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