Chelsea captain John Terry started testifying to counter charges he racially abused an opposing player after a judge rejected his lawyer’s motion to dismiss the case.

Terry, 31, told the court in London that he was “very angry and I was upset as well” when he heard the other player, Anton Ferdinand, accuse him of making the racial slur. Terry said he repeated the words “black c---” because that’s what he thought Ferdinand accused him of saying during the game.

The case came to court after an off-duty policeman who watched video replays of an Oct. 23 match suggested Terry used a racial slur to abuse Queens Park Rangers player Ferdinand. Ferdinand testified yesterday that he saw video footage showing Terry calling him a “black c---.”

Terry was dropped as captain of England’s national soccer team ahead of the European Championship after Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle delayed the trial. Terry faces a maximum fine of 2,500 pounds ($3,875) and may face further sanctions from English soccer’s governing body.

Before Terry took the witness stand, his lawyer, George Carter-Stephenson, asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying prosecutors’ arguments were “weak and tenuous.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in London at tpanja@bloomberg.net; Lindsay Fortado in London at 4806 or lfortado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net