Former England captain John Terry said he was not prepared to be called a racist, his trial heard on Tuesday.
The 31-year-old told the Football Association a week after being accused of racially abusing Queen Park Rangers player Anton Ferdinand that racism was not in his character.
Terry is accused of calling Ferdinand a "f****** black c***" during a Chelsea match against QPR on October 23 last year.
A recording of the interview was played on Tuesday at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
He said: "I have been called a lot of things in my football career and off the pitch, but being called a racist I am not prepared to take.
Terry rejects accusations from defender Anton Ferdinand that he racially abused him last year
"That's why I came out and made my statement immediately. I am not having Anton thinking that about me or anyone else.That's not my character at all."
Terry denies a racially aggravated public order offence.
The centre-half told the FA investigator Jennifer Kennedy that he was repeating back to Ferdinand what he believed he had said to him.
Terry said he thought Ferdinand was accusing him of calling him a black c***.
Ferdinand took to the stand to testify in the trial on Monday
Terry said: "I was taken aback by that. I have never been accused of that."
Terry went on to say in the interview that he was angry at thinking Ferdinand was accusing him.
"I felt strongly about it and wanted to clear it up before I left the stadium or he got the chance to leave the stadium."
Terry told the investigator that Ferdinand was shouting abuse at him over allegedly having an affair with Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge's girlfriend.
Terry said he was aware how the CCTV looked to people who did not understand the context.
Saying that Ferdinand shouted "black c***" at him, the defendant said his counterpart obviously was not calling him that, so he repeated it, then called him a "f***** knobhead".
Terry said he could not think of anything he said that would make the QPR player believe he had racially abused him.
The court also heard that Terry had worked with former Chelsea captain Marcel Desailly and striker Didier Drogba's African charities.
It emerged on Tuesday that the only person who initially complained to police about Terry was an off-duty police officer.
In Terry's police interview on November 25 he told officers he shook some QPR players' hands after the game but Mr Ferdinand's.
He told detectives "industrial language" among footballers was unremarkable but using racist terms was "completely unacceptable".
Terry repeated to officers that he believed Ferdinand had shouted "black c***" at him and his response was: "F*** off, f*** off, yeah, yeah, black c***, f****** knobhead...
"He was being a knobhead for alleging I had."
The trial continues.
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