Terry "racially abused" Ferdinand

Chelsea and England footballer Mr Terry, 31, is charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence - an allegation he denies.

It relates to a comment allegedly made by the Chelsea captain to the QPR defender when the teams played at Loftus Road last October.

The trial, set to last five days, is at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

If found guilty, the maximum sentence Mr Terry could receive is a £2,500 fine.

It is alleged that the Chelsea captain insulted the QPR player by calling him black with the use of extreme sexual swear words.

Mr Ferdinand told the court that initially he did not think any racist terms had been used.

But after the match, his girlfriend at the time played him a YouTube clip and he changed his mind.

Mr Ferdinand told the court that if he had realised at the time he would have told officials.

"I would have been obviously very hurt and I probably wouldn't have reacted at the time because, being a professional, you can't do that.

"I probably would have let the officials know what happened and dealt with it after the game," he said.

"When someone brings your colour into it, it takes it to another level and it's very hurtful."

Under cross-examination, Mr Ferdinand said he was no stranger to being sworn at and agreed he had also sworn at players, Kazinform quotes BBC News.

Asked why he was so angry with Mr Terry appealing for a penalty, Mr Ferdinand, describing himself as a "calm, collected player", said: "Because I am a winner."

Proceedings in court have been punctuated by swear words but Mr Ferdinand insisted he did not use those words off the pitch.

George Carter-Stephenson QC asked the witness if by shouting abuse at him he was "trying to get a rise out of Mr Terry and get him to react?"

"Probably, yes," responded Mr Ferdinand. "There wasn't long left in the game."

Chelsea captain Mr Terry was allowed out of the dock into the well of the court to view footage of the alleged insult.

'Bad breath'

The court heard that Mr Terry maintains he was only sarcastically repeating words that Mr Ferdinand wrongly thought he had used, during the match which was broadcast to millions of people.

Opening the prosecution, Duncan Penny said: "The Crown's case is that the words were abusive and insulting in a straightforward sense."

He added that a racially abusive obscenity had been uttered "demonstrating hostility based on Mr Ferdinand's membership of a racial group".

"They were uttered by the defendant in response to goading by Mr Ferdinand on the issue of his extra-marital affair, rather than by way of exaggerated and instant querying of a perceived false allegation," he said.

Two TV clips and footage not previously broadcast of the incident, normally used for training purposes, were shown to the court.

The trial heard that Mr Ferdinand said something about the Chelsea player's alleged affair and made fist gestures, before Mr Terry responded.

Chelsea team-mates John Mikel Obi and Ashley Cole were nearby when insults were traded, but they will not be called as witnesses as part of the prosecution case.

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