Ferdinand asks for late change to pitchside set at Bernabeu after refusing to stand on Real badge

Rio Ferdinand ordered a late change to the BT Sport pitchside set at the Bernabeu before Real Madrid’s clash with Chelsea.

Ferdinand posted a video on his social media explaining that the pitchside table for the live broadcast had been placed directly in front of the Real Madrid crest on the floor. 

The Manchester United legend and fellow pundit Joe Cole refused to stand on the crest to avoid disrespect to the Spanish giants. 

He said: ‘I think we need to have a conversation here Coley… what are they asking us to do mate?’

Cole responded saying: ‘They’re asking us to stand on the Real Madrid badge. You can’t do that man!’

Rio Ferdinand was unhappy with the pitchside set at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night

Ferdinand then clarified they were having the set re-organised, adding: ‘This is where we meant to stand. We need to speak to the floor manager and have a word, we can’t do that. We’re going to roll it up so we don’t stand on the badge.’

Cole then joked they didn’t ‘want to poke the bear’ with any signs of disrespect before kick-off. 

The incident came 24 hours after Joao Cancelo opted to not stand on Manchester City’s badge as he made his first return to the club. 

The Portuguese youngster was back in Manchester following his loan move to Bayern Munich in the January window. 

Holders Real Madrid eased to a comfortable 2-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

The visitors were already a goal down in the Bernabeu when Ben Chilwell was red carded for a foul on Real forward Rodrygo just before the hour, after Karim Benzema had scored his 89th goal in the competition to give his team a half-time lead.

At that stage, Chelsea looked happy to escape with a one-goal deficit ahead of the second leg on Tuesday, but Real doubled the size of their task when Marco Asensio fired in a second 16 minutes from the end