Think I’d ignore this story altogether? Yes I am late but I’m not in it for the juicy gossip, just the Football side of it, though both have become intertwined so much the last lot of days it is hard to discuss one without getting caught up in the other. Much like trying to write about how Golf would be affected by the Tiger Woods scandal or more-so what would happen next with Tiger Woods in a Golfing context. Yep, this John Terry affair with his team-mates ex-girlfriend and then getting her pregnant and paying for an abortion is Britain’s very own Tiger Woods scandal and the tabloids are going for the throat on this one, hoping to dig up more woman, more gossip and more to bring Terry down with. The guy should never have got the injunction and pissed off the British hacks to this degree. Even in a World Cup year when these same writers profess their undying love for all things English Football with their full support are they willing to risk it all by bringing down the clubs captain.
That isn’t to say Terry is innocent, after all he made his own bed and in the end, he gave them something to write about by acting the fool in the first place, but I have always said the private lives of anyone, regardless of the money they make or the fact they are a celebrity should remain private and what they do behind closed doors, is none of our business. But it is in our faces now and that is the reality and questions must be asked about whether it is right for him to go on as England captain?
Personally, now that it is all out in the open I really think the guy should be stood down. His team-mate Wayne Bridge whose ex-girlfriend Terry is alleged to have had an affair with could well be in the dressing room with him at the World Cup and for Terry to be standing there with the captains armband on saying, “Right boys, follow me into battle, I’m your leader and I’m going to win you the World Cup,” you have to imagine would leave one half of the dressing room backing Bridge and then you run into all sorts of problems. Some experts argue that this won’t hurt the dressing room, and it may not, but then there is the moral issue also. Sports stars shouldn’t be looked at as roll models, but the England manager has said that he expects his players to be stand up people and remember what they are representing. As captain, John Terry represents his entire country on the football scene and these latest problems won’t sit well with a lot of people.
I personally couldn’t care less, if I was English and busting for England to win the World Cup I’d only care if I thought it would tear the team apart so close to the event itself, but while it may or may not, is it worth Capello taking the risk? Taking the risk that the team fall out, that Bridge and Terry have issues and England’s best shot at glory in many years is destroyed by some non-footballing issue. Many team mates over the years have hated one another off the field but when they cross the white line they act professionally and get the job done because it benefits them as well to be successful, but is it worth the risk? Of course if the answer to something like that is yes then a new can of worms opens – stripping Terry of the captaincy wouldn’t be enough, you’d have to banish him from the squad altogether. Of course Terry is a much better player than Bridge but what kind of message would that send if Capello left Bridge out of his squad to avoid controversy.
No doubt about it, this is Fabio Capello’s toughest decision of his England managerial tenure. It’ll be much tougher than deciding his squad and if he gets it wrong the media will, unfortunately, come down on him. John Terry should have done the right thing and took the problem out of his managers hands by volunteering to step down. Throw in an apology and suddenly, with five months still to go until the World Cup, there is plenty of time to heal the wounds and focus on Football. Depending on what Capello does it could go wrong every time just as easily as it could go right:
1. He keeps Terry as captain and the dressing room revolts throwing the WC dreams into tatters.
2. He drops Terry as captain but keeps him in the squad and England don’t win and the media point to this decision as the pivotal moment.
3. He drops Terry from the squad and… (see above).
4. He doesn’t pick Bridge and the press go wild that he ditched the innocent guy in all of this just to keep the balance of the team even though Bridge’s place in the squad is not guaranteed anyway.
Oh to be Fabio Capello (though the headache might be worth it for the salary!)
In a sporting context, what makes this much worse than the Tiger Woods affair is that Football is a team sport and so many other players dreaming of World Cup glory could have that left in jeopardy thanks to John Terry’s private lift turning public.
On a side note away from Terry but on the subject of sport stars under 24/7 scrutiny comes another reality in the modern society that we live in; With mobile phones with built in cameras that have instant access to Internet uploading, the superstars we love to watch are under the eye more than ever … one bad photo of a footballer, generously taking a photo with some female fan with his first beer of the night in his hands but caught blinking as the photo is being taken is on the net in seconds and it looks like he is a drunken mess picking up random woman at the bar. Sports stars aren’t that open to their fans that much as it is, but this sort of stuff drives the fans away even more. There are plenty of sports stars out there who refuse to have their photo taken in public with fans because of what may be implied, and that is a shame.
And on a final note I want to refer to the word Scandal. I will use in a tag of this post and I used it on some of the Tiger Woods articles a month or two ago. What a shame that a sportsblog is forced to tag some borderline sports story with words such as Scandal. Another one I’ve had to use over the years that I wish I didn’t is Drug Cheat and Steroids etc.
