The England captain is vigorously denying claims he racially insulted Anton Ferdinand, but it isn’t the first time he’s fallen foul of the authorities in his turbulent career to date.
John Terry is innocent until proven guilty of racially insulting Anton Ferdinand, but you can’t blame anyone who doesn’t believe his cries for leniency considering what he has got up to in the past.
The last 11 years of Terry’s career are littered with off-field tales of serial adultery, fraud, alcohol-fuelled histrionics and yes, p*ssing in a nightclub in full view of other patrons. Read on for a more comprehensive list of his crimes and misdemeanours.
September 2001: Insulting American tourists after 9/11
The day after the September 11 attacks, Terry and then Chelsea teammates Frank Lampard, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jody Morris, were accused of insulting American tourists following a mammoth drinking session at Heathrow Airport. They were subsequently fined a paltry two weeks’ wages for their actions.
January 2002: Assalut and affray with Jody Morris, again
Four months after the 9/11 episode, Terry was back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, with able accomplice Jody Morris once again by his side. The pair were out celebrating the birth of Morris’ first child at an exclusive London nightspot, before getting in a bit of argy-bargy during which a doorman was seriously injured.
Terry was cleared of affray, having an offensive weapon, wounding with intent and unlawful wounding, and is believed to have wept in court upon hearing the verdict.
February 2002: P*ssing into a pint glass in a nightclub
Only a month after being given the all-clear, you would think that Terry would have been on his best behaviour, but as we would all later learn, self-reflection and absorbing the lessons of his past aren’t exactly his best attributes.
Terry was spotted on CCTV cameras in a Romford nightclub p*ssing into a pint glass at the bar and promptly returning to the dancefloor thinking that his exploits had gone unnoticed. He was subsequently quietly escorted from the premises, but when the CCTV footage went viral, his detestable behaviour (but thankfully nothing else) was exposed for all to see.
2004: Gambling £40k a week
Footballers earn a lot of money and are entitled to do with it what they will, but when you’re spending over and above the national wage every week on the horses, as Terry, Scott Parker and Wayne Bridge were alleged to have been, then there’s something amiss.
Frankly, we are little disappointed that squeaky clean Scott Parker was involved, but as least he steered away from negative headlines afterwards. As for Terry and Bridge…
November 2005: Car sex, or nearly car sex
In fairness to Terry, he admitted that he cheated on his then girlfriend Toni Poole at will before they tied the knot in 2007, with reports suggesting he had affairs with up to nine other women before setting down. And he wasn’t very discreet either.
In November 2005, he is alleged to have got down and dirty with then 17-year old Jenny Barker in the back of his Bentley in a public car park, but Jenny wouldn’t let him go all the way.
“He smiled and put on sexy Luther Vandross music from a selection on a huge screen in the car,” she said.
“One thing led to another but we did not have sex. I didn’t want to give in to him like I can imagine every other girl does.”
October 2007: Paparazzi attack
Attacks on the paparazzi are normally the preserve of B-list American celebrities, but Terry couldn’t help getting in on the act when a snapper overstepped the boundaries in 2007. Terry is one of a number of Chelsea players alleged by a photographer to have prevented him from taking photographs and subsequently damaging his scooter.
March 2008: Parking in a disabled bay
Terry copped a £60 fine after parking his Bentley in a disabled bay while treating his family to a meal in Pizza Express. Had he parked in the public car park only a few yards away, he would have only had to pay 50p an hour, but was obviously consumed by his overbearing sense of self-importance.
December 2009: The secret tour guide
Terry is believed to have accepted a folder containing £10,000 in £50 notes for organising a secret behind the scenes tour of the Chelsea training ground. The scam was uncovered by the News of the World, the now defunct red top that was once the bastion of clean cut investigative journalism.
January 2010: The Wayne Bridge affair
John Terry after his wedding to Toni Poole in 2007: “I’ve misbehaved and slept with girls behind her back and that’s not right. She knows about it all now and we’re moving on. I’m not going to cheat on her ever again.”
Everyone else of course knew better than to believe Terry, not least Wayne Bridge, once a best mate of Terry’s and now a sworn enemy after Terry cheated on his wife with the mother of Bridge’s child, Vanessa Perroncel. The lasting legacy of the whole episode was the famous non-handshake between the pair when Chelsea faced Man City shortly after the whole thing went public.
October 2011: Racist abuse of Anton Ferdinand
After Anton caught him with a couple of sneaky elbows, Terry is alleged to have called the gangly QPR defender a “f***ing black c**t”. Terry, for his part, doesn’t deny using those words, but merely says he was refuting Ferdinand’s accusation, saying: “You don’t think I called you a f***ing black c**t.”
We haven’t got much time for Anton Ferdinand. He strikes us a less talented and possibly even more annoying version of his brother, but he seems to be adamant that Terry is guilty. If he is, then he faces losing the England captaincy for a second time, surely a distinction that would be unique to Terry in the international game.
It wasn’t from the wind he got it
Terry’s Ma and Da could hardly be described as sterling influences on young John. In March 2008, Terry’s mother and mother-in-law were nabbed trying to steal £800 worth of goods from Tesco, while in 2009, his Dad was caught selling cocaine in an Essex pub (those damn undercover reporters again).
Well, at least John can say it wasn’t from the wind he got it his appetite for bad behaviour.
