John Terry stripped of England captaincy

This time all I have to say is whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Saying that...Euros coming up there had to be some sort of controversy somewhere!

Innocent until proven guilty is a nice idealist concept, but if you have ever been falsely accused of a crime you soon find out it doesn't exist.

To me it's the FA that comes off looking badly here, they should have continued their investigation, made their decision and if warranted, dealt out any punishment. There has been cases in other sports where the authorities have carried out internal investigations ahead of criminal trails and they have not seemed to prejudice the upcoming trail.

The problem the FA faced in this incident, is that anyone in the public eye whether in the private sector or the public sector who faced similar charges would have been suspended while the investigation was on going. It seems that the FA was hoping the courts would deal with this before the end of the season and they would be off the hook in regards to having to make a tough decision.

The FA's inconsistency in similar cases has come back to haunt them here. Woodgate and Boyer where suspended from England duty once they were charged with the assault of a Asian student, and Rio Ferdinand was suspended from England duty once he was charged with missing a drug charge. However Gerrard was allowed to play for England while he was on trail for assault.

No matter what the FA decided on this case, it was going to look like a mistake, they have mishandled it from the start and left themselves little options.

Decent article by Gary Nevile on this issue.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2096543/Gary-Neville-Team-England-You-joking.html

He makes a lot of good points and I maintain my initial stance that Terry has been poorly treated (and as Neville said, so was Ferdinand) when it comes to the armband. The whole structure is indeed ridiculous and a hinderance more than anything. If I was Terry, I would be very tempted to shove two fingers to the English FA and announce my retirement. As much as I have said against Terry in the past though, I think he is too patriotic and a better person than that and I'm sure he will continue to play, for the fans and himself. I'm bored of all the media and FA crap that comes out before every tournament!

Its all very difficult, more complicated now the England manager has spoken out in favour of John.

Many are asking what has changed for the FA to act in this manner as we already knew it was going to court.

Well I have been told the FA were lead to believe the case would be thrown out before it got to court.

Would love to know what the extra evidence is, that was produced when asked for more by the prosecution office.

It will be very interesting who accepts the armband. I felt it would be difficult for anyone to take it with John still around after what happened to Rio, who for me was laughable in saying he does not want it within hours of the announcement. I doubt he will make any England squad without injuries helping him.

Now the manager has come out and said he still thinks of John Terry as the Captain, no one in their right mind should put themselves in the position of being a Captain of no importance.

I just wonder if a few of those said to be next in line are brave enough to turn the chance down?

I very much doubt their will be enough balls around to make a stand, although Sir Bobby Charlton obviously wonders if there is someone man enough to replace John.

Interview he gave over the weekend questioned just that.

On a personel note, I hope he never captains the country again, and retires from International football knowing he has the highest winning percentage of any England captain.

Even beats Sir Bobby Moore (Luv Him)