Spare us from Strictly Come Racism in this Terry conundrum
By Martin Samuel
Last updated at 10:17 AM on 2nd February 2012
John Terry. Why doesn’t he just sod off?
It would be so much more convenient that way.
So much easier for everybody if he would just accept that the verdict of the kangaroo courts is in, without the tiresome necessity of due legal process in a proper one.
Judged unfit to captain England in the grand court of Twitter, messageboards and radio vox pops, why doesn’t Terry just slink away and accept that nobody has the patience for a fair trial these days?
We want to vote now. We want to press the red button to interact. We have decided the England captain is the weakest link. Goodbye.
What a nuisance he is, with his talk of innocence and his stubborn refusal to stand down. He should just resign, safe in the knowledge nobody would read this as an admission of guilt. This is a civilised society, after all. We don’t presume. We don’t pre-judge. And we don’t involve ourselves in idle gossip. Ask Gary Speed’s family.
No, nobody would read anything into the news that the England captain had quit his job pending a trial for a racially aggravated public order offence. They wouldn’t speculate that new evidence had emerged making his position untenable. No smoke without fire, they certainly wouldn’t say.
July 9. How hearts must have sunk at the FA when they were tossed that little hand grenade from Court One. The District Judge, the aptly named Howard Riddle, presented Terry’s masters with a conundrum of fiendish complexity by delaying his case until after the European Championship.
Interest: There was a big media presence at Westminster Magistrates Court
Terry could lift England’s first trophy since 1966 as the hero of a nation on July 1, and be branded a racist in Westminster Magistrates’ Court less than two weeks later; a horrible prospect.
The alternative, however, is to strip England’s captain of the greatest professional honour — for the second time in his career — on the back of something he might have done. Maybe. We’re looking into it.
We are told our multi-racial society will not accept such a prominent public figure being accused of racism; well then, our multi-racial society needs to grow up.
Accusations, we can handle. Accusations are dealt with fairly, then judgement is passed if guilty. To start passing sentence — and to lose the England captaincy is a sentence — on the basis of as yet unproven accusations is fundamentally unjust.
The FA have been dealt a devilish hand, but it is not their fault. They had almost completed their investigation into what passed between Terry and Anton Ferdinand when high-handedly ordered to wait for the police investigation.
In charge: Terry will keep hold of the England captaincy for Euro 2012
This moved at glacial speed, so an incident that took place in autumn 2011 will now be resolved in summer 2012.
There is the possibility that the FA will convene their own hearing before then — the ICC did against Pakistan’s spot- fixing cricketers before their criminal trial — but what if it found Terry had no case to answer? Instantly, the FA would be accused of expediency, of potentially sabotaging a police case for their own ends.
They could not win, unless they found Terry guilty and sated the baying mob.
Jason Roberts, who is busily playing up an average career in football — he is currently on loan at Reading from Blackburn Rovers — into a more rewarding one in the media, instantly announced via Twitter that Terry should not go to the European Championship at all, let alone as captain.
‘Believe me, the dressing room will be toxic,’ he said. Yet why should we believe him? Why should we believe anybody, without evidence?
Roberts knows no more about the politics of the England dressing room — he has won 22 caps, but for Grenada — than we do about the events at Loftus Road on October 23.
We need hard facts, not vague implorations. We are going to find out the truth of this matter, but sometime after July 9. Sorry if that is vexatious.
Sorry if that does not suit the need for a nightly eviction. Maybe there is something on another channel that you can watch.
We have heard this all before around Terry. The dressing room was going to be toxic after the Wayne Bridge controversy, and when he was reinstated to replace Rio Ferdinand.
Now it will be poisoned again. Yet when Fabio Capello asked if any players had problems with Terry’s return as captain, he was met with silence.
When Capello asked the new young players which of the senior professionals took time out to welcome them and stayed in touch after international duty, Terry scored highly again.
The only way Capello will remove Terry is if he thinks the storm around him will adversely affect the focus of the squad. His decision will be pragmatic, not moral, because to replace Terry on moral grounds alone is to treat an accusation as proof of guilt.
And it would be convenient if that were the case. Very convenient for those with a finger on the red button.
But this is a mans career at stake, its not Strictly Come Rascism
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2095143/Martin-Samuel-John-Terry-captaincy-issue.html#ixzz1lDnzfM2d
By Martin Samuel
Last updated at 10:17 AM on 2nd February 2012
John Terry. Why doesn’t he just sod off?
It would be so much more convenient that way.
So much easier for everybody if he would just accept that the verdict of the kangaroo courts is in, without the tiresome necessity of due legal process in a proper one.
Judged unfit to captain England in the grand court of Twitter, messageboards and radio vox pops, why doesn’t Terry just slink away and accept that nobody has the patience for a fair trial these days?
We want to vote now. We want to press the red button to interact. We have decided the England captain is the weakest link. Goodbye.
What a nuisance he is, with his talk of innocence and his stubborn refusal to stand down. He should just resign, safe in the knowledge nobody would read this as an admission of guilt. This is a civilised society, after all. We don’t presume. We don’t pre-judge. And we don’t involve ourselves in idle gossip. Ask Gary Speed’s family.
No, nobody would read anything into the news that the England captain had quit his job pending a trial for a racially aggravated public order offence. They wouldn’t speculate that new evidence had emerged making his position untenable. No smoke without fire, they certainly wouldn’t say.
July 9. How hearts must have sunk at the FA when they were tossed that little hand grenade from Court One. The District Judge, the aptly named Howard Riddle, presented Terry’s masters with a conundrum of fiendish complexity by delaying his case until after the European Championship.
Interest: There was a big media presence at Westminster Magistrates Court
Terry could lift England’s first trophy since 1966 as the hero of a nation on July 1, and be branded a racist in Westminster Magistrates’ Court less than two weeks later; a horrible prospect.
The alternative, however, is to strip England’s captain of the greatest professional honour — for the second time in his career — on the back of something he might have done. Maybe. We’re looking into it.
We are told our multi-racial society will not accept such a prominent public figure being accused of racism; well then, our multi-racial society needs to grow up.
Accusations, we can handle. Accusations are dealt with fairly, then judgement is passed if guilty. To start passing sentence — and to lose the England captaincy is a sentence — on the basis of as yet unproven accusations is fundamentally unjust.
The FA have been dealt a devilish hand, but it is not their fault. They had almost completed their investigation into what passed between Terry and Anton Ferdinand when high-handedly ordered to wait for the police investigation.
In charge: Terry will keep hold of the England captaincy for Euro 2012
This moved at glacial speed, so an incident that took place in autumn 2011 will now be resolved in summer 2012.
There is the possibility that the FA will convene their own hearing before then — the ICC did against Pakistan’s spot- fixing cricketers before their criminal trial — but what if it found Terry had no case to answer? Instantly, the FA would be accused of expediency, of potentially sabotaging a police case for their own ends.
They could not win, unless they found Terry guilty and sated the baying mob.
Jason Roberts, who is busily playing up an average career in football — he is currently on loan at Reading from Blackburn Rovers — into a more rewarding one in the media, instantly announced via Twitter that Terry should not go to the European Championship at all, let alone as captain.
‘Believe me, the dressing room will be toxic,’ he said. Yet why should we believe him? Why should we believe anybody, without evidence?
Roberts knows no more about the politics of the England dressing room — he has won 22 caps, but for Grenada — than we do about the events at Loftus Road on October 23.
We need hard facts, not vague implorations. We are going to find out the truth of this matter, but sometime after July 9. Sorry if that is vexatious.
Sorry if that does not suit the need for a nightly eviction. Maybe there is something on another channel that you can watch.
We have heard this all before around Terry. The dressing room was going to be toxic after the Wayne Bridge controversy, and when he was reinstated to replace Rio Ferdinand.
Now it will be poisoned again. Yet when Fabio Capello asked if any players had problems with Terry’s return as captain, he was met with silence.
When Capello asked the new young players which of the senior professionals took time out to welcome them and stayed in touch after international duty, Terry scored highly again.
The only way Capello will remove Terry is if he thinks the storm around him will adversely affect the focus of the squad. His decision will be pragmatic, not moral, because to replace Terry on moral grounds alone is to treat an accusation as proof of guilt.
And it would be convenient if that were the case. Very convenient for those with a finger on the red button.
But this is a mans career at stake, its not Strictly Come Rascism
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2095143/Martin-Samuel-John-Terry-captaincy-issue.html#ixzz1lDnzfM2d
