Deconstructing the John Terry bollocks

Fear not, football haters, this is not really a post about football. It’s about standards, and debunking the silly idea that being an absolutely crap human being is dependent on whether the year is 1911 or 2011.

This is one of the few contemporary issues where the relativist liberal extremists and yeh-whatevers have nowhere to hide.

Over the last few years, the Chelsea and England soccer captain John Terry has made quite a name for himself…as well as several million pounds. He developed an unpleasant habit of noticing the attractiveness of his team-mates’ wives, and then diving in for a bit of nookie with them himself. His Dad – who we must presume had some influence on his all-round unattractive son – is a convicted drugs dealer. A man who sells deep unhappiness to those already in sorrow. Terry gets involved in quite a few scraps, and he is known to like a drink. And last bit not least, he has something of a reputation for winding up opposing players and getting them sent off. A month ago, he allegedly aimed a racist insult at a Queens Park Rangers opponent, and this incident has now become the subject of an FA investigation.

Throughout all these misdemeanours, scrapes and hugely condemnatory episodes, Terry remains the captain of the England football team. The sole reason advanced for this is that Terry is a skilled captain, under whose tutelage the team is more likely to win. That’s it. This is my far stronger case for why he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near an England shirt, let alone the captaincy.

For many unguided and ethically confused kids in Britain today, footballers are heroes. There is no greater role-model available in the game than the man who is England captain. John Terry is – by behaviour, history, association and reputation – just about the worst role model available after Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand – whose peccadilloes are ageing prostitutes and drugs respectively. Andy Coulson would be a better role model than John Terry.

His England manager, an Italian, seems largely unconcerned about the shag-happy racism of which his captain stands accused. I’m not aware of any national medium that has come out strongly against the Terry captaincy. I don’t know of a single politician saying on the record that Terry’s retention of the captaincy is a national disgrace.

But the fact remains that it is. And here’s why: John Terry’s leadership of the national football team suggests that it is OK to be an unfaithful husband, a disloyal team-mate, a wandering father, a brawler, a boozer, and a man whose premeditated racism is designed to cause offence. The bloke represents cheating, amorality, insensitivity and all things we should find reprehensible in a leading sportsman.

For the fact that he is still in the England team, I accuse Fabio Capello, the FA, FIFA, the media, and the political class…one or more of whom should’ve had the moral compass to kick John Terry out of not just international football, but polite society.

Terry has but one saving grace: he serves me well as an example of why the “Yeh, but things are different now – you’re just a grumpy old man” mantra is unmitigated bollocks. If you want a culture in which key opinion leaders set appallingly anti-social examples of personal behaviour, then it matters not a jot whether you lived in a Greek City State 3000 years ago, or Paraguay today: you must be mad.