The past few days have been a tumultuous nightmare of bad publicity for the England team and the Football Association. As the spiralling blame game continues, none of the associated parties are emerging without any fault.
The FA started the ball rolling when they decided to remove John Terry from the England captaincy last week. Their reasoning was that once Terry's trial date had been moved to after the European Championships this summer, they had no choice but to act. Though they may have been clumsy in only making this decision at this late stage, and in neglecting to properly include Fabio Capello in the decision making process, they ultimately, haphazardly reached the correct choice of action.
The press have fuelled the pressure to act, but whatever your reasoning, John Terry's position had become untenable. His profile and former position as captain have responsibilities that exacerbate his precarious reputation, and neither of these should have been allowed to make him immune from the seriousness of what he has been accused of.
The FA were clearly hoping to have had Terry go to trial and to be (ideally) found innocent of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. It is difficult not to be cynical about the FA's motivation and beliefs. Once the police had decided that their investigation warranted a prosecution, the FA should have made a moral stand at that juncture. Instead they have hesitated and squirmed until matters have forced their hand. Ultimately, even the FA realised that for England to go into a major international tournament, with their captain facing such charges, would be a monumentally embarrassing PR disaster.
However, much of the last few days has shifted focus upon a clearly irritable Capello. The England manager has said his piece on Italian TV, in the full deliberate glare of the press and public. Credit where due, he has fairly stated that John Terry is innocent until proven guilty by a civil court. But, he is choosing to ignore Terry's obligations when acting as the figurehead of the national team. In fact it is a common practice for any normal employee under investigation to be suspended or put on gardening leave. Capello should really be grateful that he is still free to select the Chelsea captain at all.
The fact that he can has raised further anger amongst critics. This is understandable as whilst he is apparently unfit to lead the England team, the FA's compromise leaves him able to engage in the full range of his other obligations. Baffling as it may be, there is clearly a grey area over an issue that stems from a black man being allegedly abused by a white man.
The discussion over who will succeed Terry as captain has also been complicated. Capello has made his feelings clear that whoever does get the final nod (most likely Steven Gerrard), will do so in the knowledge that the England manager doesn't really regard them as such.
Of course Terry has already lost the captaincy once before. The infamous situation regarding Wayne Bridge's former girlfriend was denied by all parties except Bridge, who has remained in a silent, self-imposed international retirement ever since. This was preceded by accusations about the Chelsea captain making lucrative sums of bonus money by selling private tours of the Chelsea training ground.
None of these incidents have ever been proven or properly corroborated, but they have all added up to besmirching the character of John Terry. It could be that he has simply been unfairly portrayed over the years by a narcissistic media and that he should be given more credit. Then again, there have been further rumours that Terry was shunned by some members of the England squad when it last met up, suggesting a far from wholly supportive atmosphere.
Whether or not that is the case remains to be seen, but no doubt the former England captain will find the next few months stressful, as will Anton Ferdinand. What is now apparent is that between the FA and Fabio Capello, the England set-up has missed any opportunities it had to handle the issue without creating further ones. If this is as decisive as things get, Euro 2012 may well end up being even worse for England fans than the last World Cup.