FA Strip John Terry Of Captaincy – England’s JT Is England’s JT No More

Chris Wright

3rd, February 2012

18 Comments

By Chris Wright

“Say what now?”

The FA have just released the following statement, confirming that England’s John Terry has been stripped of the national team captaincy for the second time in his long and distinguished career:

“Following the decision to adjourn the court case against John Terry to July, the Football Association confirm he will not captain the England team until the allegations against him are resolved.

The FA Board expected the trial to be concluded prior to the European Championship. Further to Wednesday’s confirmation that the trial will not take place until after the tournament, the Board has discussed the matter in detail and has collectively decided it is in the interests of all parties that John has the responsibilities of captaincy removed at this time.

“This decision has been taken due to the higher profile nature of the England captaincy, on and off the pitch, and the additional demands and requirements expected of the captain leading into and during a tournament.

“The FA Board can confirm that he has not been excluded from the squad and that Fabio Capello is free to select him for the Holland fixture on 29 February and the European Championship.

“FA Chairman David Bernstein has spoken to both John Terry and Fabio Capello to explain the facts to them. Fabio Capello has not been involved in the FA Board discussions which reached this conclusion, but understands that the FA Board has authority to make this decision.

“Fabio Capello will take the decision as to who will be made captain moving forward.

“This decision in no way infers any suggestion of guilt in relation to the charge made against John Terry. The FA will be not be making any further comment on this matter.”

So many questions: Who will take over? (Gerrard, if he’s back in the fold) Will Terry be included in the Euro 2012 squad (Probably, though I foresee a fortuitous injury cropping up a week or so beforehand) Will he retire from international football all together? (No) Will he play for England again (Depends on the trial) Will Rio shake his hand this Sunday? (The FA will do away with it again à la QPR) Will England crash out at the quarters in Polkraine regardless of who is the grunt in the armband? (Yessir).

Any thoughts folks? I can’t seem to gather mine.

Posted in Euro 2012, Featured, International football

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18 Comments

  1. Archbishop Betty Snagcock says:

    oh the daft fucking cunts

  2. Bob Loblaw says:

    I love waatp but your last article, Why ‘Toxic’ John Terry Shouldn’t Be Made To Hand In His England Armband, was dog shit. Not the point you were making just the tools you used to defend your point. You are right, innocent until proven guilty, but no one ever called Terry ‘toxic’ yet thats in the headline of the article. You also question what Roberts knows about being in the English dressing room. Not a lot but he does know what its like to be racial abused and he does know how the black players in the dressing room will feel about sharing the dressing room with Terry, the so called ‘toxic’ dressing room. You also made lots of spelling errors, what is an innocence man?

    • Chris says:

      @Bob Loblaw: Right. Firstly, Jason Roberts said Terry’s inclusion would create a – and I quote – “toxic atmosphere”, ergo implying that the man himself is a toxic presence. I am honestly baffled by your grievance on that matter.

      Secondly, no one knows if Terry racially abused anyone – not even Anton Ferdinand. Ferdinand just knows what he thinks he heard, and the matter would’ve been dealt with by now had a member of public not complained. There is video footage of Terry mouthing the words he’s accused of slinging at Ferdinand, but there is absolutely no context.

      There are mitigating circumstances, a logical defence (I understand Terry claims he was actually filmed part-way through yelling “of course I didn’t call you a f**king black c**t” after Ferdinand misheard him calling the referee a “blind c**t” – indicating that he was actually insulted by being accused of using racist language) and, and I cannot stress this firmly enough, an imminent testimony to be made on Terry’s behalf by Ashley Cole – a man who would surely be included in amongst the black players in the England dressing supposedly sickened by Terry’s conduct should they all believe him to be guilty of racist abuse?

      Players like Cole, Essien, Malouda, Ramires, etc have been sharing a dressing room with Terry for months since the incident occurred in October. Have you heard a single peep about a ‘toxic atmosphere’ brewing at Chelsea? Nope, me neither.

      The overriding point is that absolutely nothing is certain to have happened yet, and still Terry – regardless of his odious previous – is being treated as a condemned man and tarred with the ‘racism’ brush.

      Thirdly, spelling errors happen from time to time when you spend all day every day typing. They are next to insignificant. Please try to keep a hold of that fact.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I must say, i use to go for england at international tournaments (mainly because my country inst in them)NO i hope they become a rabble and finish bottom of the group, which to be honest isnt really that unlikely

  4. SL says:

    Ferdinand says no such conversation took place, even if theres not enough evidence to convict in a court case and it comes down to word v word, only a moron/chelsea fan (same thing really) would believe Terry over Ferdinand.

    Its not a coincidence days after this 2 black players handed in a transfer request.

    Not only should he not be captain, he shouldnt even bi in the squad as there are 4 better CBs than him that should go.

  5. Archbishop Betty Snagcock says:

    @chris oh yeah you go girl

  6. Luke says:

    @Chris- Oohrah brother. You’re bang on.

  7. JP says:

    Spot-on FA. Albeit a little late, correct decision. Don’t need anymore questions to answer right now…

  8. Barry says:

    SL, sorry which 2 black players would that be? Anelka and I imagine your talking about Alex? the brazilian? who isnt black. And Imagine it had more to do with the fact they couldnt get a game, as they were shit.

  9. Ron says:

    Woah, I didn’t realize until just reading this that Terry might have yelled that at the ref and Anton thought he heard something else.

    Hmm, that makes all of this a lot more complex.

    I guess I just wonder if Terry would be facing the same thing if he hadn’t been previously guilty/accused/involved in so many incidents. “You’ve got a bad reputation…”

  10. Archbishop Betty Snagcock says:

    and yes chris i agree with you completely.

    the country believes in innocent until proven guilty, the FA should act so, but if they FA do not wish to do so, then they should drop him (and with his form over the past couple of seasons not as difficult as some may think), not fanny about in this middle ground.

    and now they’ve dropped terry who’s going to be captain? surely they’ve got to be a leader and guaranteed a place in the side.

    Gerrard (injured constantly and not to form yet even if he gets back to form is he going to be worthy of a starting place 2014)

    Lampard (not playing constantly for Chelsea and again, is he going to be good enough in 2014)

    Rio (injury prone, been inconsistent, may not even want it after being dropped for terry last time and again, 2014)

    Cashley, Rooney and Hart (not captain material)

    all that’s left is parker and will someone who’s only got a few caps and never played champions league/international tournament get the respect he needs?

    please feel free to say Betty u crazy, it is my opinion
    (though watch out for bitches of the cloth, we get old testament and shit on yo ass)

  11. Redskywalker7 says:

    Players like Cole, Essien, Malouda, Ramires, etc didn’t defend him either.

    And there’s no evidence whatsoever backing up the theory that he was shouting “No i DIDN’T call you a Black C***” So those are lousy defenses.

    That being said, I don’t believe he said Black Cun* and this has been blown way out of proportion. BUT, he should never have been the armband back in the first place. He’s a disgrace. Your Captain is an ambassador of sorts for your country, so why the hell would you want this scumbag?

  12. Redskywalker7 says:

    *given

  13. garza says:

    I think this could have been resolved with more grace if Terry had taken it upon himself, in all sincerity or to save face or under pressure, to step aside. He could’ve said that since he’s under investigation and/or to avoid the possibility of fissures within the team (etc, etc), it would be for the betterment of the team for him to give up the captaincy. But good PR has never been Terry’s or the FA’s strong suit. Still, I think the correct end result has happened here. Let’s be honest–this is not the first time Terry’s done something like this on the pitch, it’s just the first time someone complained and somebody else actually took him seriously. Good luck to whoever inherits the armband, I hope he’s worthy of it.

  14. Omar says:

    Ain’t no player that deserves the band on his left arm after the J.T 26

  15. Del says:

    @garza: Agree with you completely.

  16. LFC girl says:

    stevie g for captaincy

  17. neil says:

    If Terry had an ounce of class he wouldn’t be in this position in the first place. Would anyone really want to sit and have a pint with an arrogant, uneducated, oik like Terry? No, course not. When Chelsea’s “loyal” fans aren’t booing their team off the field when they lose, they’re the only ones with a good thing to say about him. Toxic is a perfectly accurate word, a truly loathsome, thoroughly obnoxious, odious, cheap, little man. He’s brought nothing but shame to the England captaincy, he should never have been given the armband. Funny how Capello is sticking up for him after his attempted (failed) coup at the World Cup. It’ll be interesting to find out what Ancelotti has to say about Terry, not much of a positive nature, I’d imagine. I’d rather be represented by non-league players at Euro 2012 than by vermin like Terry.

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