John Terry feels as though the FA has made his position as an England international untenable. At least that was the message from the Terry camp when the Chelsea skipper called time on his international career on Sunday at the age of just 31. This, a direct result of the FA’s on-going investigation into Terry’s alleged racial abuse of Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand. After Terry had already been found not guilty in a court of law.
Does Terry have every right to feel aggrieved over an apparent witch hunt? Or is he simply having to live with a difficult situation that he created?
Terry’s statement about his England future, released late on Sunday evening, read as follows:
"I am today announcing my retirement from international football. Representing and captaining my country is what I dreamed of as a boy and it has been a truly great honour. I have always given my all and it breaks my heart to make this decision. I am making this statement today in advance of the hearing of the FA disciplinary charge because I feel the FA, in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable”.
Terry’s point is clear; he’s been cleared of any offence in a court of law, that should be the end of it. Yet the FA deem it necessary to keep on probing.
Despite competition from the likes Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott, Terry has remained the first name on the team sheet as the transition from Capello to Hodgson has taken place. And it could be argued that the FA are seemingly refusing to let him put his issues behind him and move on.
The FA’s decision to proceed with their own disciplinary procedures, separate from what the courts have already decided, does seem odd. But ultimately how they choose to govern their sport and it's players is their prerogative.
One thing that we can safely agree with Terry on is that his position does now seem to be untenable. The Chelsea players are seemingly happy to proceed with Terry as their leader but that doesn’t mean that the entire England set-up would be. He had already been stripped of his captaincy, but armband or no armband Terry is one of the England changing room’s natural born leaders.
His influence has always been such a positive for the team but his effectiveness as a leader can be seriously called into question now. The example that he sets as a player notwithstanding, Terry has proved to be an unsettling presence within the team.
The England camp needs to be a settled one and they could do without the ‘elephant in the room’ that John Terry could potentially be. Already the presence of Terry makes call-ups for Rio or Anton Ferdinand impossible. And in truth the Ferdinand brothers are not alone in that respect.
The international future of Wayne Bridge was also decided by the actions of Terry. After the allegations that Terry had an affair with the girlfriend of Bridge, his then Chelsea team-mate, he was stripped of the captaincy for what would prove to be the first of two occasions. And that could be the key point, twice Terry has been stripped of his England captaincy. Never for football reasons, always for his unfavourable extracurricular activities.
Whoever is lucky enough to be called England captain isn’t just the on field leader of the national team. A proverbial face or ‘poster boy’ for the 3 Lions, the England captaincy comes with a lot of esteem that is expected to be upheld by its holder.
It’s hard to think of another England captain that was stripped of his captaincy once, let alone twice. The two black eyes that Terry’s behaviour has given the FA in these instances have been unwelcome and hard to recover from. And it’s for that reason that Terry’s self-portrayal as the victim seems unjust.
The issue with Terry isn’t a matter of what skin colour you are, people from all races are entitled to be offended by racism. And although it must be pointed out that Terry was charged and then acquitted, the lingering investigation and the stigma attached to alleged racial intolerance does make his place in the team a little awkward to say the least.
Being an England international is a two way street and, off the field at least, John Terry has not held up his end of the bargain. At least some of the blame for Terry no longer being an England international has to fall at his own feet.