John Terry denies the
charge against him but
the FA cannot take the
chance of him leading
England at Euro 2012.
Photograph: Laurence
Griffiths/Getty Images
In the end, the threat of
embarrassment – real,
searing embarrassment
meant more than hurting
the feelings of one man.
The risk was too great
for the Football
Association and that is
why it has made the
correct decision because
the alternative, quite
simply, was not worth
thinking about.
It takes a big leap,
perhaps, but just imagine
if
England, captained by
John Terry, had got their
act in gear ahead of the
European Championship
and actually won the
damn thing. Terry's trial
for allegedly racially
abusing Anton Ferdinand
is eight days after the
final, and what then? If
he is convicted,
the FA would not be able
to airbrush him from the
pictures.
Another trophy
presentation could not be
arranged. The television
footage could not be
doctored purely so we
could have something to
remember that doesn't
make us glow and cringe
at the same time. Terry
would already have
recreated the nearest
thing any Englishman has
had to a 1966 moment.
Yes, he may be found not
guilty. But the FA could
not take the chance.
This is not the only
reason why it has
removed Terry's
captaincy, but it is
enough in itself. At
Manchester City last
season they won their
first trophy for 35 years
but a lot of supporters
now look at the
photographs of the
trophy presentation with
a hollow form of joy. The
problem, you see, is that
it is Carlos Tevez holding
it aloft and, as far as
they are concerned at
City, Graeme Souness
called it just right when
he talked of the
Argentinian epitomising
everything that was
wrong about modern-day
football. Yet Tevez was
never convicted of calling
an opposition player a
"black cunt".
Terry hasn't been either.
He denies the allegations,
says he feels
"disgusted" and, in which
case, he was probably
entitled to want to keep
that little piece of
elasticated cloth around
his left biceps. But the FA
had too much to lose. The
final of Euro 2008 was
watched on television by
around 330 million people
in 231 different countries.
Each game had an
average audience of 155
million. This year's event
will be even bigger. The
FA's responsibility is for
the image of the English
game, not the feelings of
a man who should
probably never have
been given a second bite
at the captaincy anyway.
By overruling Fabio
Capello and affronting
Terry, the FA is trying to
spare us from Euro 2012
turning into an ordeal not
of its own making. Every
press conference in
Poland and the Ukraine
would have seen it crop
up.
Every training session
would have been
scrutinised for signs of
cliques and divisions. As
the captain, Terry would
have been obliged to
speak before every
match. Even if the English
press pack had
eventually left him alone,
the foreign journalists
would not have. Every
time a black player
walked through the mixed
zone someone would
have stuck out a
microphone. The
questions can be couched
in many different ways
but they would all boil
down to one thing: pro-
Terry or anti-Terry?
Some may think it is
wrong to be bothered by
these things, that the
media has done enough
to disrupt England and
the FA should rise above
it. But this is the way of
modern-day football. It is
there, it is not going to
change and, as England
should know from
experience, it can be a
monster in major
tournaments. The
controversy would have
fastened on like a tick on
the side of a dog, getting
worse all the time.
That is not to say
shifting Terry a couple of
places down the lineup
entirely removes the
problem. On the
assumption that he
resists any temptation to
tell the FA to sling it, his
trial is still going to
provide a permanent
backdrop to whatever
else happens in Capello's
final few weeks as
manager. Terry can
actually regard himself as
fortunate in one respect
in that football seems to
operate by different
rules from just about
every other profession.
Any other employee of a
large company would
already have been
suspended on full pay for
an allegation of this
seriousness, pending the
outcome of the case. It is
standard procedure
outside of the football
bubble and, if it were
applied here, we wouldn't
have the sideshow of
Rio Ferdinand now
contemplating what it is
going to be like sharing
the same oxygen with the
man accused of abusing
his younger brother.
Note the message on the
Manchester United
defender's Twitter
account after the trial
date was set: "I feel
insulted … woke up with a
bad taste in my mouth …
its a god damn joke!"
Rio Ferdinand is a
popular player within the
England dressing room
and you wonder what will
have to be done to make
things bearable behind
the scenes.
How does Ashley Cole
deal with it? Will Wayne
Rooney be caught in the
middle? What if Danny
Welbeck, a young, black,
Manchester United
footballer who looks up
to Ferdinand as one of
his heroes, gets called
up? Jason Roberts has
predicted it would be
"toxic" and, even if that
is not quite the correct
word, it is threatening to
be awkward, tense and
potentially volatile.
Capello needs
togetherness. If he does
not think Ferdinand and
Terry can work together,
he has a difficult decision
to make. One will have to
be sacrificed.
Terry's sympathisers
argue that the decision
warps the boundaries of
innocent until proven
guilty, and this was a
common worry among
David Bernstein's
colleagues when he
started the process of
canvassing their views.
Except removing the
captaincy is not
prejudicial if it is simply
an interim approach. It is
not presuming guilt or
innocence, merely
accepting that the FA has
a lot of things to consider
and, all in all, it needs to
suspend judgment. Yes,
it is going to create a lot
of headlines and opinion
but it is not the FA's job
to worry whether that
affects the thinking of a
district judge at
Westminster magistrates
court in five months' time.
Newspapers and
broadcasters employ
lawyers to look after
that. The FA's duty
should be purely about
what is right and wrong
in football terms.
What happens if any of
England's black players
are racially abused by
the crowds in Poland or
Ukraine? Let's face it,
this scenario is more
likely than England
winning the competition.
We know the story by
now: the FA complains to
Uefa, puts out a
statement then gets very
indignant, with good
reason, that not enough
is being done about it.
The problem is, it is
difficult to take the moral
high ground when 9 July
is circled into the FA's
diary in black marker
pen. Who, in ordinary
circumstances, would be
wheeled out after Capello
to speak on behalf of the
players and condemn it?
That's right, the England
captain.
Perhaps Terry regrets
that letter from Chelsea's
chief executive, Ron
Gourlay, asking the judge
to delay the trial until out
of season.
Defendants are not
usually treated so
obligingly. If they were,
Tottenham Hotspur and
Harry Redknapp could
have asked for his court
case to be put off to this
summer, too.
Instead we have an
alleged public order
offence from autumn 2011
going to court in summer
2012 because the judge
was told it would be
difficult for Terry and
anybody else who might
be needed from Chelsea
to take time off during
the season. Terry's
commitments with the
England team were also
taken into account. It is
bizarre. Even if Chelsea
reach the Champions
League final there are
two weeks in March, two
in April and three in May
when there are no
Tuesday-to-Friday
fixtures.
"The FA board expected
the trial to be concluded
prior to the European
Championship," the
statement from FA
headquarters read. So
did Capello, the
Ferdinands and
everyone at QPR. As
Mark Hughes says: "I
think everybody believes
it has been dragging on
forever. From my point of
view, and certainly
Anton's, [we] would have
preferred it to be done
and dusted by now. I
think everybody would."
There is nothing anyone
can do about that now
and Capello, overruled
and undermined, is back
to picking a new captain
and wondering why it is
that English football has
this habit of taking a 12-
bore to its own foot. One
day, he will write a book
about all this madness.
Terry – 72 caps, six
goals, two captaincies
and more controversy
than he will wish to
remember – will feature
in every chapter.
2 July 2006 After 58
caps as captain David
Beckham resigns after
England lose on penalties
to Portugal in the
quarter-finals of the
World Cup. Speculation
about who will succeed
him begins, with John
Terry, Gary Neville, Rio
Ferdinand and Steven
Gerrard the leading
candidates
10 August 2006
Steve McClaren,
announces his desire to
take England in a
"different direction" by
dropping Beckham and
naming Terry as captain
with Gerrard as vice-
captain. "I'm convinced he
will prove to be one of
the best captains England
has ever had," McClaren
says
22 November 2007
A failure to qualify for
Euro 2008 costs McClaren
his job and casts doubts
over Terry's leadership.
Speculation is rife that
Ferdinand will replace him
5 February 2008
Fabio Capello names
Gerrard as captain for
his first match, a 2-1
friendly victory over
Switzerland, but the
Italian says Ferdinand
and Terry will also get a
chance to prove their
captaincy credentials
19 August 2008
Ferdinand and Gerrard
lose out, with Terry
entrusted with the role
for the 2010 World Cup
qualifiers. "I'd heard the
whispers that Rio had got
the armband so I was a
little bit shocked but I've
got to make the most of
it. I'd never given up on
the armband and never
will do," Terry says
5 February 2010
Despite World Cup
qualification, Capello
hands Ferdinand the
armband after allegations
about Terry's off‑field
behaviour cause Wayne
Bridge to retire from
England duty. "After much
thought I have made the
decision that it will be
best for me to take the
captaincy away from John
Terry," Capello says
4 June 2010
Ferdinand injures knee
ligaments in the first
training session in South
Africa and is replaced by
Gerrard. After a poor
start to the World Cup
Capello is forced to
quash a Terry-led player
revolt against his
authoritarian methods.
England are thrashed
4-1 by Germany in the
second round and
Gerrard's leadership
qualities are questioned
20 March 2011 With
Ferdinand and Gerrard
struggling for fitness and
form, Terry is named
captain for a third time.
The decision irks the
Manchester United
defender; Capello admits
Ferdinand "preferred not
to meet me" about the
decision. "I decided John
Terry would be the
captain for this game
[against Wales] because,
after the game in
Copenhagen, the way the
armband was moved
around was upsetting for
him"
3 February 2012
Terry is stripped of the
captaincy again
charge against him but
the FA cannot take the
chance of him leading
England at Euro 2012.
Photograph: Laurence
Griffiths/Getty Images
In the end, the threat of
embarrassment – real,
searing embarrassment
meant more than hurting
the feelings of one man.
The risk was too great
for the Football
Association and that is
why it has made the
correct decision because
the alternative, quite
simply, was not worth
thinking about.
It takes a big leap,
perhaps, but just imagine
if
England, captained by
John Terry, had got their
act in gear ahead of the
European Championship
and actually won the
damn thing. Terry's trial
for allegedly racially
abusing Anton Ferdinand
is eight days after the
final, and what then? If
he is convicted,
the FA would not be able
to airbrush him from the
pictures.
Another trophy
presentation could not be
arranged. The television
footage could not be
doctored purely so we
could have something to
remember that doesn't
make us glow and cringe
at the same time. Terry
would already have
recreated the nearest
thing any Englishman has
had to a 1966 moment.
Yes, he may be found not
guilty. But the FA could
not take the chance.
This is not the only
reason why it has
removed Terry's
captaincy, but it is
enough in itself. At
Manchester City last
season they won their
first trophy for 35 years
but a lot of supporters
now look at the
photographs of the
trophy presentation with
a hollow form of joy. The
problem, you see, is that
it is Carlos Tevez holding
it aloft and, as far as
they are concerned at
City, Graeme Souness
called it just right when
he talked of the
Argentinian epitomising
everything that was
wrong about modern-day
football. Yet Tevez was
never convicted of calling
an opposition player a
"black cunt".
Terry hasn't been either.
He denies the allegations,
says he feels
"disgusted" and, in which
case, he was probably
entitled to want to keep
that little piece of
elasticated cloth around
his left biceps. But the FA
had too much to lose. The
final of Euro 2008 was
watched on television by
around 330 million people
in 231 different countries.
Each game had an
average audience of 155
million. This year's event
will be even bigger. The
FA's responsibility is for
the image of the English
game, not the feelings of
a man who should
probably never have
been given a second bite
at the captaincy anyway.
By overruling Fabio
Capello and affronting
Terry, the FA is trying to
spare us from Euro 2012
turning into an ordeal not
of its own making. Every
press conference in
Poland and the Ukraine
would have seen it crop
up.
Every training session
would have been
scrutinised for signs of
cliques and divisions. As
the captain, Terry would
have been obliged to
speak before every
match. Even if the English
press pack had
eventually left him alone,
the foreign journalists
would not have. Every
time a black player
walked through the mixed
zone someone would
have stuck out a
microphone. The
questions can be couched
in many different ways
but they would all boil
down to one thing: pro-
Terry or anti-Terry?
Some may think it is
wrong to be bothered by
these things, that the
media has done enough
to disrupt England and
the FA should rise above
it. But this is the way of
modern-day football. It is
there, it is not going to
change and, as England
should know from
experience, it can be a
monster in major
tournaments. The
controversy would have
fastened on like a tick on
the side of a dog, getting
worse all the time.
That is not to say
shifting Terry a couple of
places down the lineup
entirely removes the
problem. On the
assumption that he
resists any temptation to
tell the FA to sling it, his
trial is still going to
provide a permanent
backdrop to whatever
else happens in Capello's
final few weeks as
manager. Terry can
actually regard himself as
fortunate in one respect
in that football seems to
operate by different
rules from just about
every other profession.
Any other employee of a
large company would
already have been
suspended on full pay for
an allegation of this
seriousness, pending the
outcome of the case. It is
standard procedure
outside of the football
bubble and, if it were
applied here, we wouldn't
have the sideshow of
Rio Ferdinand now
contemplating what it is
going to be like sharing
the same oxygen with the
man accused of abusing
his younger brother.
Note the message on the
Manchester United
defender's Twitter
account after the trial
date was set: "I feel
insulted … woke up with a
bad taste in my mouth …
its a god damn joke!"
Rio Ferdinand is a
popular player within the
England dressing room
and you wonder what will
have to be done to make
things bearable behind
the scenes.
How does Ashley Cole
deal with it? Will Wayne
Rooney be caught in the
middle? What if Danny
Welbeck, a young, black,
Manchester United
footballer who looks up
to Ferdinand as one of
his heroes, gets called
up? Jason Roberts has
predicted it would be
"toxic" and, even if that
is not quite the correct
word, it is threatening to
be awkward, tense and
potentially volatile.
Capello needs
togetherness. If he does
not think Ferdinand and
Terry can work together,
he has a difficult decision
to make. One will have to
be sacrificed.
Terry's sympathisers
argue that the decision
warps the boundaries of
innocent until proven
guilty, and this was a
common worry among
David Bernstein's
colleagues when he
started the process of
canvassing their views.
Except removing the
captaincy is not
prejudicial if it is simply
an interim approach. It is
not presuming guilt or
innocence, merely
accepting that the FA has
a lot of things to consider
and, all in all, it needs to
suspend judgment. Yes,
it is going to create a lot
of headlines and opinion
but it is not the FA's job
to worry whether that
affects the thinking of a
district judge at
Westminster magistrates
court in five months' time.
Newspapers and
broadcasters employ
lawyers to look after
that. The FA's duty
should be purely about
what is right and wrong
in football terms.
What happens if any of
England's black players
are racially abused by
the crowds in Poland or
Ukraine? Let's face it,
this scenario is more
likely than England
winning the competition.
We know the story by
now: the FA complains to
Uefa, puts out a
statement then gets very
indignant, with good
reason, that not enough
is being done about it.
The problem is, it is
difficult to take the moral
high ground when 9 July
is circled into the FA's
diary in black marker
pen. Who, in ordinary
circumstances, would be
wheeled out after Capello
to speak on behalf of the
players and condemn it?
That's right, the England
captain.
Perhaps Terry regrets
that letter from Chelsea's
chief executive, Ron
Gourlay, asking the judge
to delay the trial until out
of season.
Defendants are not
usually treated so
obligingly. If they were,
Tottenham Hotspur and
Harry Redknapp could
have asked for his court
case to be put off to this
summer, too.
Instead we have an
alleged public order
offence from autumn 2011
going to court in summer
2012 because the judge
was told it would be
difficult for Terry and
anybody else who might
be needed from Chelsea
to take time off during
the season. Terry's
commitments with the
England team were also
taken into account. It is
bizarre. Even if Chelsea
reach the Champions
League final there are
two weeks in March, two
in April and three in May
when there are no
Tuesday-to-Friday
fixtures.
"The FA board expected
the trial to be concluded
prior to the European
Championship," the
statement from FA
headquarters read. So
did Capello, the
Ferdinands and
everyone at QPR. As
Mark Hughes says: "I
think everybody believes
it has been dragging on
forever. From my point of
view, and certainly
Anton's, [we] would have
preferred it to be done
and dusted by now. I
think everybody would."
There is nothing anyone
can do about that now
and Capello, overruled
and undermined, is back
to picking a new captain
and wondering why it is
that English football has
this habit of taking a 12-
bore to its own foot. One
day, he will write a book
about all this madness.
Terry – 72 caps, six
goals, two captaincies
and more controversy
than he will wish to
remember – will feature
in every chapter.
2 July 2006 After 58
caps as captain David
Beckham resigns after
England lose on penalties
to Portugal in the
quarter-finals of the
World Cup. Speculation
about who will succeed
him begins, with John
Terry, Gary Neville, Rio
Ferdinand and Steven
Gerrard the leading
candidates
10 August 2006
Steve McClaren,
announces his desire to
take England in a
"different direction" by
dropping Beckham and
naming Terry as captain
with Gerrard as vice-
captain. "I'm convinced he
will prove to be one of
the best captains England
has ever had," McClaren
says
22 November 2007
A failure to qualify for
Euro 2008 costs McClaren
his job and casts doubts
over Terry's leadership.
Speculation is rife that
Ferdinand will replace him
5 February 2008
Fabio Capello names
Gerrard as captain for
his first match, a 2-1
friendly victory over
Switzerland, but the
Italian says Ferdinand
and Terry will also get a
chance to prove their
captaincy credentials
19 August 2008
Ferdinand and Gerrard
lose out, with Terry
entrusted with the role
for the 2010 World Cup
qualifiers. "I'd heard the
whispers that Rio had got
the armband so I was a
little bit shocked but I've
got to make the most of
it. I'd never given up on
the armband and never
will do," Terry says
5 February 2010
Despite World Cup
qualification, Capello
hands Ferdinand the
armband after allegations
about Terry's off‑field
behaviour cause Wayne
Bridge to retire from
England duty. "After much
thought I have made the
decision that it will be
best for me to take the
captaincy away from John
Terry," Capello says
4 June 2010
Ferdinand injures knee
ligaments in the first
training session in South
Africa and is replaced by
Gerrard. After a poor
start to the World Cup
Capello is forced to
quash a Terry-led player
revolt against his
authoritarian methods.
England are thrashed
4-1 by Germany in the
second round and
Gerrard's leadership
qualities are questioned
20 March 2011 With
Ferdinand and Gerrard
struggling for fitness and
form, Terry is named
captain for a third time.
The decision irks the
Manchester United
defender; Capello admits
Ferdinand "preferred not
to meet me" about the
decision. "I decided John
Terry would be the
captain for this game
[against Wales] because,
after the game in
Copenhagen, the way the
armband was moved
around was upsetting for
him"
3 February 2012
Terry is stripped of the
captaincy again
No comments