5 Times that John Terry courted controversy during his career

#3 The accusation of racism

Terry clashed with Anton Ferdinand in 2011 - and was then accused of using racist language

Terry once again found himself in seriously hot water in late 2011, as during a Premier League game against QPR, he was alleged to have called QPR defender Anton Ferdinand a “f*cking black c*nt”.

Even worse for Terry, he couldn’t even outright deny the allegation - video footage of the incident quickly emerged, with expert lip readers confirming that the Chelsea defender had used the slur.

For his part, Terry claimed that he hadn’t aimed the slur at Ferdinand and had actually been asking the player if he mistakenly thought he’d used it. As the case was going all the way to the courts, the FA had no choice but to once again strip Terry of the England captaincy in February 2012.

This led directly to the resignation of England boss Fabio Capello, who felt that the FA should have no right over him to decide who could play as captain.

Eventually, the court cleared Terry, feeling that there was no way of proving the context of the slur although Terry did admit to uttering it.

But the FA weren’t happy with the decision and launched their own investigation, which ended in Terry being slapped with a four-match ban and a £220k fine, as they felt that the player was guilty of using abusive and insulting words which included a reference to Ferdinand’s race.

Terry chose not to contest the FA’s decision but did choose to retire from his duties with England, feeling his position had become untenable due to the charges.