The England fans and press never really believed Roy Hodgson’s assertion that Rio Ferdinand was
dropped for ‘footballing reasons’, but were prepared to accept it for now as
attention switched towards the impending European Championships.
But as the steady succession of England players pulled out
through injury, with Ferdinand still excluded, it became increasingly obvious that
the Manchester United man was left out for political reasons.
Poor old Martin Kelly is the innocent victim in this, but his
call-up in place of Gary Cahill means that Hodgson will struggle to justify
those footballing reasons given Kelly only made 12 appearances for Liverpool last
season and has little over 10 minutes of live football in an England shirt under his belt.
It is clear Ferdinand was dropped due to the simmering feud
between himself and John Terry, who is to stand trial later this year accused
of racially abusing Ferdinand’s brother Anton.
It is an issue that Hodgson has been lumbered with and one
he really shouldn’t have. The FA are the masters of their downfall in all of
this.
They stripped Terry of the captaincy in February over the issue, causing
Fabio Capello to quit, but in my view they should have gone further, telling Terry
he would not be selected while this court case was hanging over him (though why
this has dragged on for so long I don’t know – the incident happened in October).
Instead we have this almost farcical situation whereby
Hodgson is choosing everyone BUT Rio Ferdinand, who is effectively being
punished for the actions of Terry, who– by accident or design – is being protected
by the FA.
If Terry and Ferdinand don't get on because of the impending court case, why should the one who is actually standing trial stay in the squad?
And herein lies the truth; if Hodgson had to choose, it is clear he sees Terry as the better player to have in the squad than Ferdinand (footballing reasons after all!), and given how sensitive footballers' egos are, Rio won't have taken that well
Throw in the likes of Micah Richards and Michael Carrick,
who refused to be on the standby list for their country, and it paints a sorry
tale of English international football. All it needs is a group stage exit for
the game to fall back into its usual state of crisis –if it isn’t already.
Even if Ferdinand’s gone he won’t be forgotten and the
manner of his exclusion will not go down well with his teammates and friends
who are on the plane to Poland, meaning those divisions Hodgson was so desperate
to avoid could open up anyway.
By dealing with this issue
in such a clumsy manner the FA have made Hodgson’s job 10 times worse and once
again given the media licence to distract the attention away from matters on
the pitch to dealings off it.
Given the football betting puts England as outsiders to
even qualify from their group, that is something the players could really do
without right now.
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