Anton Ferdinand says he feared the reaction he would have received had he spoken out during his racism case against John Terry and feels he was "failed" by the authorities.
Then-Chelsea captain Terry was accused of racist abuse toward Ferdinand during a Premier League match against QPR in October 2011.
Terry denied the accusations and was acquitted in the resulting criminal court case, but a subsequent investigation by the Football Association judged the former England star to be guilty, suspended him for four matches and fined him £200,000.
Ferdinand has explained why he refused to comment on the situation publicly while the court case was going on, but regrets leaving it all up to others to decide.
"I didn't feel like I was the right representation of our community in terms in speaking out and I don't think that I could have at the time anyway," he said in an interview with Sky Sports. "I was scared to speak out and I see that now. I was scared of the whirlwind of what happened, the abuse on social media, I couldn't get away from it, it was always there.
"I felt like I just couldn't speak, not just because it would harm the court case, which was being drummed into me a lot at the time. I did something that I wish I hadn't done, which was I left it in the hands of the authorities and they failed me."
The former QPR and West Ham centre-back first discussed the incident in public in a recent BBC documentary, Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism and Me.
The 35-year-old, who retired from the game in July 2019, now hopes to use his experience to help others.
"I feel like I needed to understand my journey and how I felt so I could mentor others," he said. "Because you mentor from experience, that's the best way to do it.
"So I needed to understand how it had made me feel and how I dealt with it. I never thought it was going to be therapeutic but it ended up being one, it brought up a lot of emotions and things that hurt me."
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