IS JOHN TERRY BEING VICTIMIZED?

John Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy for the second time in his career.  In a short meeting at the FA headquarters Terry was informed of the decision that he was being stripped from the topmost honor for an English footballer.

Never one to stay in the background, Terry has always courted controversies that have ranged in the extremes. Right from when his father was caught in the possession of drugs to the extra marital affair of sleeping with his mate’s girlfriend, controversy have accompanied Terry in one way or another.

This incident involving racism is a very serious one indeed. Allegedly accused of calling QPR defender Anton Ferdinand a black c**t, with even a video on popular site Youtube doing the rounds, Terry is certainly treading on very thin ice indeed. The genuiness of the video which can certainly be questioned does not hide the fact that Terry was certainly involved in some kind of an exchange with the defender. Even some sections of the QPR crowd were enraged as they allegedly witnessed those exchanges.

Having openly come out and strongly defended himself against the charges, the Chelsea warhorse does have the backing of his club and manager. But the trouble begins when the national team comes into the picture, the vibes in the dressing room having both Terry and Rio Ferdinand [elder brother of Anton] could be ice cold and potentially have a destabilizing effect on the squad. Rio Ferdinand for one has not been in contact with Terry since the incident broke out last October.

Having a player facing a trial in the court for racial behavior lead the National Team is not something that  the FA are willing to let happen let alone the outcome of the verdict. These are very tough times in England. Once proud of their racism free claims, the glaring incidents that have come to light in the past few weeks have certainly made those claims feel hollow. The actions now that they take in order to fight it will define their image to the world.

FA under pressure to set the record straight do not want to be embroiled in further controversies and get themselves into muddied waters come the Euros. That’s why they have gone for the safe option of stripping Terry of the captaincy. Whether he is really guilty of the offence he has been charged with is immaterial here.

The press on the other hand has been playing their part very well indeed. Knee jerk reactions to racism related incidents have been happening all along. The media seem to be on some kind of a mission themselves to project that racism in any kind is utterly intolerable and not present in the country. The Suarez case was one in particular where in spite of there being no clear cut evidence that he did indeed call him Negro , the press jumped to the conclusion that he did call him and certainly did play a role in getting him banned.

Terry could well be guilty of racial behavior and FA could indeed have taken the right call but till then I feel that he has been victimized by a mission that seems to going on in Britain right now where they are desperately trying to project themselves that they are as racism free as last September before those ugly incidents broke out.