John Terry has revealed that Rio Ferdinand snubbed him on a beach in Dubai when he approached to clear the air over the 2011 racism accusation from his brother Anton.
Terry, now assistant manager at Aston Villa, was hit with a four-game ban and £220,000 fine for the incident during the game between the Blues and QPR at Loftus Road.
But the former England stalwart was later cleared in court having being charged and has always denied racially abusing his fellow defender.
Last year's BBC documentary entitled Football, Racism and Me, looked back at the incident and it was said during the programme that Terry chose not to speak to Anton Ferdinand or take part in the show.
Terry claims that is untrue and insists there have been multiple occasions over the years when he has made efforts to contact both Anton and his brother, Terry's former England centre-back partner, Rio, who described him as 'an idiot' in his autobiography released in 2014.
Terry, 40, told the Times: 'It's disappointing to read and hear that I've never reached out.
'I tried to phone Rio and Anton on numerous occasions, literally the same night [as the game], the day after, and that week after the incident.
'Then about three, four years ago, I see Rio on the beach in Dubai, so I approached him and said, "Have you got five minutes? I'd like to talk to you." He was like, "I don't want to talk to you, JT".
'I was prepared to address the issue. I tried to phone Anton, Rio and his agent [Jamie Moralee]. And in the lead-up to the programme, my legal team had contact with the producers with the view to communicate but they were very evasive with the content and what they were trying to achieve.
'It was a lot bigger than it should have been for me. We could have dealt with the issue. I was very keen to get that done.'
The incident effectively ended Terry's England career as the captaincy was taken away from him by the FA when he was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service.
He was cleared in court but decided to call time on his England career when the FA opened a case against him.
Terry says the BBC documentary means there is no longer a chance of reconciliation with Ferdinand.
'It's been 10 years now, then to see the documentary and being made to look the bad guy in there... it's done. There's a line in the sand drawn', he added.
'Anton can have his opinion. My opinion is very clear, I was not guilty in the court of law which is the biggest form of our law in our country. No higher.'
When asked directly if he was racist, Terry said: 'No, I'm not - racism is unacceptable.'
Ferdinand himself told Sky Sports News last year: 'I didn't feel like I was the right representation of our community in terms of speaking out and I don't think that I could have at the time anyway.
'I was scared to speak out and I see that now. I was scared of the whirlwind of what happened, the abuse on social media, I couldn't get away from it, it was always there.
'I felt like I just couldn't speak, not just because it would harm the court case, which was being drummed into me a lot at the time.
'I did something that I wish I hadn't done, which was I left it in the hands of the authorities and they failed me.'
Terry continued playing club football for Chelsea before leaving to play a season for Aston Villa in 2017-18. He then retired and took up a position under Dean Smith as assistant manager.
Anton Ferdinand retired after ending his playing career with St Mirren back in 2019.