The accusations of racist taunting by Chelsea & England captain John Terry were too much for the Football Association, which overruled manager Fabio Capello and stripped the defender of the armband. Capello had told Terry he would not take it from him because he’d already done it once on allegations that were unproven (Terry allegedly sleeping with Wayne Bridge’s ex) and didn’t want to do it twice.
The Guardian cites reports of potential mutiny and bad blood toward Terry in the dressing room, which had to be more than tense because Terry’s accused of abusing Anton Ferdinand, younger brother of Rio (the latter who is often Terry’s CB partner in the England kit). The pushing back of Terry’s trial on those charges until the summer put the FA in a no-win situation, because from a PR standpoint, it looks bad to have the team’s main player rep be accused of this when the FA and FIFA are at least giving lip service to opposing racism. The whole matter has Terry considering retiring from international football.
(Some would argue that Terry should have lost the captaincy and his place in the squad just because he’s grown old and past it.)
The Guardian has a poll on who should be the next captain and the only player I see who’s world-class, not potentially out with injury, appears to be a decent person, and guaranteed a line-up spot is probably Joe Hart. If you care, who should be England’s captain now?
![Quoting any portion of Michael Cox’s wonderful breakdown of Roy Hodgson’s appointment as the manager of the England men’s football team would do a disservice to the overall points he lays out. In sum, Cox’s thesis is that the FA and England are a mess and must be seen as outsiders to win any major tournament because the country does not have the players to allow creative license — thus, Hodgson makes more sense than the media and bookies’ favorite, Harry Redknapp.
(If you don’t read Zonal Marking on a regular basis, you should start now. Cox is also a contributor to the Guardian [often appearing on the Football Weekly podcast] and ESPN’s soccer coverage as well.)](http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee512/zonal_marking/hodgson3.jpg)
