John Terry's trial for the alleged racial harassment of Anton Ferdinand is underway, with both men having testified. On Monday, Ferdinand gave his account of their verbal spat on the pitch during the West London Derby between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers on October 23.
John Terry Trial: Anton Ferdinand Details His Account; Terry Claims Language Was Not Racist
Ferdinand admitted to insulting Terry on the pitch before Terry uttered the words that he is standing trial for, and he detailed those insults.
“How can you call me a c--t?”, Ferdinand said he had shouted at Terry. “You shagged your team-mate’s missus, you’re the c--t.”
It was after this that Terry allegedly called Ferdinand a “f--king black c--t”. Terry has not denied saying those words, but claims that they were not an insult directed at Ferdinand. Rather, Terry’s side of the story is that Ferdinand accused him of racial abuse before he said anything, and that he repeated those words sarcastically, because of Ferdinand’s alleged accusation.
Terry gave a statement to police about the racially aggravated public order offense before seeing video footage of the incident, saying that he had nothing to hide.
“I knew there was nothing out there that would show that I had done anything wrong. I was keen to go forward with my police statement, my FA statement. If I had anything to hide I wouldn’t have done that. If there was ever any doubt in my mind, I could have held back, soaked it up and thought: ‘Let’s wait until tomorrow, let’s see what kind of footage is out there.’”
Terry's trial is still ongoing, and teammate Ashley Cole is expected to give evidence on Wednesday afternoon.
For more on Terry and the Blues, visit Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History.
See More:
