Footballer Anton Ferdinand dismissed insults traded with John Terry as "banter" and initially denied any racist obscenity had been used, a court heard today.
England and Chelsea defender Mr Terry, 31, is accused of calling Mr Ferdinand a racist obscenity during a Premier League game on 23 October last year.
Today Westminster Magistrates' Court heard that at first Queens Park Rangers centre-half Mr Ferdinand did not think any racist insult had been used.
He shook hands with Mr Terry and accepted that their clash was "handbags" and "banter".
But after the match, his then girlfriend showed him a clip of their exchange posted on YouTube, and he believed Mr Terry had used the racist obscenity.
Mr Ferdinand told the court that if he had realised at the time he would have told officials.
He said: "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.
"When someone brings your colour into it, it takes it to another level and it's very hurtful."
Chelsea were down to nine men in the clash at Loftus Road, and Mr Ferdinand and Mr Terry began trading insults over a penalty claim, the court heard.
Mr Ferdinand said the exchanged insults, and that he then made a reference to Mr Terry's alleged affair with his former teammate Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Perroncel.
Mr Ferdinand jogged down the pitch making a fist gesture to imply sex, he told the court.
After the match, Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole told him: "You can't talk to JT like that."
Mr Terry then met Mr Ferdinand to ask what had happened.
"Mr Terry said, 'Do you think I racially abused you?'. I was like. 'No'," Ferdinand told the court.
"I said 'No, that never came out of my mouth'. Then Ashley Cole popped his head round and said 'Yeah, didn't you say that to me?' I said 'I didn't say that at all'."
Mr Terry is accused of a racially aggravated public order offence, which he denies.
He maintains that he was only sarcastically repeating what Mr Ferdinand wrongly thought he had said.
In cross-examination by George Carter-Stephenson QC, for Mr Terry, Mr Ferdinand said he was no stranger to being sworn at and agreed he had also sworn at players.
The QPR defender said he was angry at Mr Terry trying to get a penalty and "he barged me in the back for no reason", he said.
Proceedings in Court One have been punctuated by swear words but Ferdinand insisted he did not use those words off the pitch.
The 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," said Mr Ferdinand. "There wasn't long left in the game."
Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, attended today's hearing and sat in the public gallery.
Mr Carter-Stephenson suggested that Mr Ferdinand made up the allegation of racism as swearing at him and talking about his alleged affair was not having "the desired effect" of winding Mr Terry up.
Mr Ferdinand denied this.
Mr Carter-Stephenson said: "So you decided to increase the level and accuse him of being a racist."
"No," said Mr Ferdinand.
Mr Carter-Stephenson said Mr Ferdinand only decided to go to police when persuaded by his agent Justin Rigby.
Mr Ferdinand denied this, saying: "No, I made up my own mind, I wanted to do it."
In re-examination, he said he was initially reluctant to talk to the police because it was a sporting issue.
"This is a footballing issue that happened on the football pitch where we work," Mr Ferdinand told the court.
