da bet nacional： On the pitch at Euro 2012 so far, England have performed slightly above expectations after having them dampened so often by those in power, but the aftershocks of the situation that led to the side going into the tournament a month or so before without a manager in place are still being felt, and we shouldn’t forget to scrutinise the FA for their undoubted media mistakes along the way.
da bet7k： Fabio Capello resigned from the England job in early February this year, after he decided that getting a kicking from a bitter and somewhat xenophobic national press for not talking to them all that much while earning £6m-a-year just simply wasn’t worth all of the hassle. However, the straw that broke the camels backs was the FA’s mis-handling of the John Terry saga and it continues to botch one attempt to draw a line under the issue after another.
John Terry is innocent until proven guilty with concerns to the court trial he has coming up for an racially-aggravated public order offence, involving Anton Ferdinand. The thing that moronic fans often forget, when they boo Anton Ferdinand for being reportedly racially abused, is that it was a fan at the game that reported the incident rather than the player himself, hence why it has been dealt with by the courts rather than the FA as the Patrice Evra-Luis Suarez case was.
The fact that this was taken out of the FA’s hands has had a huge role to play in the mess they’ve repeatedly made. Only when it was revealed that the court case date was set for after Euro 2012 on July 9th did they make a decision themselves. They stripped John Terry of the captaincy when it became clear that the courts weren’t going to do them a favour and make the decision for them. This dithering approach isn’t a media strategy as such, it’s just downright idiotic. What followed was that Capello, quite rightly, saw this as a challenge to his authority and he fell on his sword. No manager at any level would stand for having the board tell them to get rid of his choice of captain.
Where the FA really fell down, though, was that they stripped Terry of the captaincy but stopped short of banning him from the squad. So instead you had this ludicrous half-measure that meant he could still go to Euro 2012 with a racism court case hanging over his head but just not as captain. The very reasons that meant the FA stripped him of it in the first place still existed – problems in the dressing room, a divided national team set-up – but the FA were only really interested in protecting their image, particularly with racism such a hot topic in Ukraine and Poland this summer.
It essentially left whoever took over the job with a terrible conundrum to face right away. Whatever course of action Roy Hodgson took, he was on a hiding to nothing. The FA had just passed on responsibility for the situation once again to someone else. The lack of leadership on display beggars belief.
So what happened next? Hodgson named his England squad and Rio Ferdinand was left out and John Terry was left in. The former West Brom boss simply said ‘footballing reasons’ were behind Ferdinand’s omission, but didn’t care to specify what exactly they were. Of course, there were very real concerns about Ferdinand’s fitness and ability to play two games in quick succession, but instead, both Hodgson and the FA remained quiet.
Ferdinand’s representative Jamie Moralee relseased a statement which read: “Lampard, Terry, Barry, Gerrard; all ageing but they go to the tournament. Why is Rio different? To treat a player that has captained and served his country 81 times (in this manner) is nothing short of disgraceful. Total lack of respect from Hodgson and the FA as far as I am concerned.”
Ferdinand then himself took to Twitter to tweet the short but rather unsubtle “what reasons????!!!!” in reference to Hodgson leaving him out of the squad. I think that it’s fair to say that there are classier ways of edging towards international retirement than this. The situation got even worse when Gary Cahill was ruled out of the tournament through injury and Liverpool’s back-up Martin Kelly was called up in his place, instead of Ferdinand.
On the 9th June, Hodgson finally revealed his footballing reasons and they actually made a lot of sense: “Rio Ferdinand for me is not a player that you call up as a substitute, or to cover for the players that you have. “We turned to Martin Kelly because I knew he was going to be someone who would be very useful to us. “He’s very happy to be here knowing that his chances of playing a big part in the tournament are quite small. “You don’t turn to people like Rio Ferdinand for that.”
Hodgson named his England squad on the 16th May, which is 24 days until he properly explained Ferdinand’s absence from the squad. It made sense when he eventually did, so why such the delay? What exactly is the FA’s director of communications team being paid to do unless it’s stopping stories like this from hogging the limelight? Sticking your head in the sand is not a strategy, and neither is putting your fingers in your ears and hoping for the best and that it will all just go away.
Hodgson later remarked that he was ‘surprised’ that everyone was still talking about the Ferdinand omission, which shows you the level he’s at when it comes to being able to play the media game, but the FA should know better. They’ve botched this situation from the off and the circumstances that led to Hodgson getting the job in the first place were solely down to their mis-handling of the affair.
They’ve undermined two different managers in quick succession and essentially failed to make a decisive and clear decision of their own at every turn. Success on the pitch may have saved them, but as they have consistently shown in the past, it won’t be long until they make another horrendus gaffe.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
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