91Èȱ¬

Anton Ferdinand did not shake hands with Chelsea's John Terry prior to kick-off of the Premier League fixture between QPR and Chelsea at Loftus Road.

QPR defender Ferdinand walked past Chelsea's Terry and then also avoided shaking hands with Ashley Cole, as he had indicated he would.

In July, Chelsea captain Terry was acquitted of racially abusing Ferdinand in last year's corresponding match.

Terry still faces a separate Football Association charge, which he denies.

That hearing is expected to begin on 24 September. Left-back Cole was a defence witness during the trial.

The managers of both sides, Mark Hughes and Roberto Di Matteo, had missed the handshakes.

"I was walking down the tunnel with Roberto," said QPR boss Hughes.

"Our focus was on the game. I brought it up at the Premier League managers' meeting saying I didn't think it needed to be there anyway and maybe we will look at it again."

Chelsea manager Di Matteo added: "Everybody focused on the football and, of course, there would be high emotion, but both sets of players played very professionally.

"As far as we are concerned, our players offered it and if the other player doesn't want to receive it, then we move on.

"But I think the media can play a big part in stopping writing and talking about it and focus more on the football, which everybody loves."

The Premier League issued a statement this week, insisting players from both sides would follow the pre-match convention of shaking hands.

That tradition had been abandoned prior to the previous two encounters between the teams.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association, Clarke Carlisle, insists the pre-match handshake should remain in the game.

"The handshake is a Fifa directive but I'm actually an advocate of it. I think it is a statement of intent," he told 91Èȱ¬ Radio 5 live.

"I think that it is a good thing in the game but when you do get a matter like this, a situation that is so personal between two or three people, you can't force any human being to shake another person's hand.

"It then becomes another one of those talking points that right now football could do without.

"When something that has been so deep rooted and had such a vitriolic response from both sets of supporters and polarised opinion within a lot of the game, I'm not surprised there are residual feelings that bite into their professional lives."

Carlisle is hoping once the FA rules on the case, then both players can put it behind them.

"I would hope that at the conclusion of the FA inquiry that we can put this situation to bed.

"As an industry we can learn from it and make sure something like this does not happen again so two people or two clubs don't have to go through it again."