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The Irish Times - Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Ferdinand was asked to demonstrate precisely how he had gestured towards Terry, writes DANIEL TAYLOR

ON THE pavement outside Westminster Magistrates Court, a lone Chelsea fan in a replica shirt and baseball cap held up a life-size cardboard cut-out of John Terry and tried to attract the attention of the small army of photographers jostling for position behind the metal fences.

Inside up the stairs, turn right past the security guys and through the two sets of double doors Terry sat behind the glass-walled dock of courtroom one. Wearing a pale grey suit, salmon-pink tie and polished shoes, he could have been dressed for a summer wedding. Instead, he was face-to-face with Anton Ferdinand, the opponent he called a f**king black c**t while playing for Chelsea in a Premier League match against QPR last October.

It was the row, ultimately, that led to Terry losing the England captaincy although he still played in Euro 2012 which, in turn, brought about the dispute between Fabio Capello and the Football Association that saw the Italian resign as national team manager. And it all started from a dispute over a penalty-kick that was never given.

Ferdinand was angry that Terry thought he should have been awarded one; Terry barged into him. The two players swapped insults. Terry waved his hand in front of his nose, as if to indicate that Ferdinand had bad breath. Handbags, they agreed after the match. Banter, football stuff, shake hands and keep it on the pitch. But then it got serious. Ferdinand was shown some YouTube footage and told he was trending on Twitter. It had become global news, as he put it. By the time court case 1103985595, listed as John George Terry 07/12/80, had finished for its first day, it was difficult to recollect how many times, even roughly, the word c**t had been used. Forty? Fifty? One hundred? More?

The only certainty was that it was going to be a difficult day for newspapers, radio and television when it came to their asterisk and bleeping policy.

Early in his evidence, Ferdinand was unsure about whether or not he could swear in court. Its a serious issue, the prosecutor Duncan Penny told him. Please do not worry about the language. What did you call Mr Terry? Ferdinand replied: A c**t. And so it began.

At times Ferdinand could be seen looking to his mother, Janice, and other relatives in the front row of the public gallery. Along from them sat Chelseas chairman, Bruce Buck. Representatives from the football anti-racism and discrimination organisation Kick It Out, and the Football Association were also among the assorted media. The court had doled out tickets in the manner of a football club distributing press passes, and the queue of reporters turned away at the door was substantial.

They missed an extraordinary day in which Ferdinand was asked at one point to demonstrate to the court precisely how he had gestured towards Terry on the pitch. He did so with a clenched fist, bending his elbow and delivering a pumping action. Asked what it was supposed to signify, Ferdinand replied: A shag.

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C-word has its day in court as Ferdinand replays face-off