Controversy, Captains & Coaches - What Next for England?

The longer and longer this season goes on, the more likely it seems that it will certainly not be remembered for the Football that took place during it.

Great games we’ve witnessed this season, including a 3 goal Man Utd come back and a 5-3 Arsenal win – both at Stamford Bridge – will be shelved behind all of the controversy that has taken place throughout the season.

Suarez's 'Hand of God' at 2010 World Cup

We’ve had two globally renowned Premiership players get themselves into big trouble – and unfortunately for these two it’s not for the first time. Luis Suarez was hated by millions across the world following his ‘save’ against Ghana in the World Cup back in 2010, and then even more so after his celebrations during his walk back down the tunnel after Asamoah Gyan failed to convert the spot kick that would’ve put his nation deservedly through into the next round.

And John Terry is no stranger to front page headlines. After his alleged affair with the now ex-girlfriend of former club and national team mate Wayne Bridge, Terry was stripped of the captaincy for fear of creating unwanted alliances in the England camp before the World Cup.

Since Suarez’s brush with controversy, he has moved from Dutch club Ajax to Merseysiders Liverpool, where he has become some what of a cult hero. But the whole drama and adrenalin of a Manchester Utd v Liverpool derby, got to Suarez. He was accused of racially abusing Man Utd Captain Patrice Evra during an altercation in the 6 yard box.

Many questions have been asked over whether Evra’s evidence was reliable, as there were no other witnesses called – the hearing by the FA was effectively one man’s word against another. And there was divided opinion at the time over whether Suarez should actually have been banned based on this evidence. Regardless of that, he was irresponsible enough to get himself into a position where he could be punished, and has paid the price with his 8-game ban, and tarnished reputation.

John Terry has been accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, brother of England team mate Rio, during a match at Loftus Road where QPR eventually came out on top against 9-man Chelsea. This time there would seem to be more conclusive evidence in the form of video, as well as some of Ferdinand’s QPR team mates putting forward their evidence to the please. The question has to be asked though, why has John Terry’s alleged racial abuse ended up in the Court of Law, yet Luis Suarez’s ‘misdemeanours’ were punished only by a trial by the FA?

Terry has been summoned to court to answer charges of racial abuse, but the case has been put off until after the EURO 2012 Championships this summer.



Terry allegedly racially abused QPR's Ferdinand



The FA felt like they had to act on the matter, so at the beginning of February the board got together, and John Terry was stripped of the England captaincy for the second time in as many years. Of course, under the UK Court of Law, JT is ‘innocent until proven guilty’, but The FA felt that they couldn’t risk a man who has been charged of racism, leading the country to a major tournament.

This again caused a big split in opinion from English football fans; it seemed that the controversy that had dogged the 2011/12 season would just not go away. And then came Fabio Capello’s interview with an Italian media outlet.



Capello, who has been accused on many occasions of lacking passion and bravado on the touchline, jumped to the defence of the man he re-instated as captain after the World Cup. He declared that as far as he was concerned, Terry was still ‘my captain’. The FA again had work to do, and called Capello to Wembley for a meeting to discuss his comments, which some thought could be construed as a breach of contract.

Come the end of the ‘amicable’ meeting, Fabio Capello had ended his reign as England manager by handing in his resignation, before later stating – again to Italian media – that he was forced into the decision and was left with no choice but to resign.

This now leaves England without a manager, 4 months before the start of EURO 2012. Under 21 Manager Stuart Pearce has already been appointed as Caretaker for the rescheduled friendly against Holland at the end of the month, but who are the front runners for the position?

Capello leaves Wembley after his resignation

Pearce himself has been involved with England for a long time now, firstly as Under 21 boss, and then combining his duties with coaching the senior squad on match days and during tournaments. He has surely built up a large amount of international management experience to a degree, and will already know all of the players in the squad very well. There could be nearly 10 players in the England squad who at one point played under Pearce for the Under 21s, including Jack Wilshere, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Roy Hodgson has a vast amount of continental managerial experience, and although an unfortunate spell at Liverpool didn’t work out, he’s now playing some good football at The Hawthorns with his new club West Bromwich Albion. He also took unlikely Fulham to a Europa League final a couple of years ago, so he has pedigree in cup competitions.

Martin O’Neill has been linked with the England job on many occasions previously, and seemingly will until he perhaps eventually takes up the job. But he has just taken on the managerial reigns at his boyhood club, Sunderland, where he has transformed their fortunes dramatically. It is unlikely he would want to leave that so soon, and the likelihood of The FA allowing any manager to be in charge of the national squad on a part-time basis is extremely low.



Could Pearce become the Permanent boss?



This brings us to Tottenham Manager ‘Arry Redknapp. Redknapp himself is no stranger to controversy, he’s only just been cleared of Tax Evasion, days before Capello left his position of England manager. Redknapp has won the FA Cup with unfancied Portsmouth, has turned Tottenham into a team who could be classed as title contenders, and perhaps most impressively has done so with a spine of English and British talent – that will surely appeal to The FA along side his impressive CV that few other English managers can match.

Ledley King, Michael Dawson, Kyle Walker, Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Jermain Defoe and Jermaine Jenas have all played for Spurs under Harry, and have received England caps. Not to mention other players from the home nations such as the impressive Gareth Bale and the Scottish Full Back now at Aston Villa, Alan Hutton.

It is unlikely that any club will let their manager leave before the end of the season, and there is a rather large gap between the last Premiership game of the season and the first England pre-tournament friendly against Belgium at the end of May. This points towards The FA leaving the job post open until the end of the season before appointing a manager – unless of course the man they choose is the current incumbent of the role, Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce.

Either way, the drastic happenings in the football season so far could perhaps allow England to finally go into a major tournament with no real expectations and less pressure than in previous years. The national side is seemingly in turmoil with no captain or manager, and without the expectations, perhaps the undoubted individual talent of the England players can combine together in this time of struggle and put in a few good performances.

Can The FA Afford to Break Away From FIFA?

Blatter Has Another Term

Sepp Blatter has successfully retained his position as The President of FIFA, after an effective no-contest. Football’s governing body has been the subject of much attention in the past week or so, but rather than focussing on all the controversy that has taken place, I thought I’d have a look at the possible alternative for The Football Association – breaking away from FIFA.

The FA Chairman David Bernstein, spearheaded the appeal to delay the FIFA Presidential election, but the stance of The FA was not very well received by the ‘football family’. Only 16 other nations agreed with The FA, while 19 other countries abstained from the voting. This left 172 countries willing to let Blatter rule over football for another 4 years.

The appeal from The FA to get the election postponed was viewed upon by most as a case of sour grapes. England have, rightly or wrongly, had their gripes with Mr. Blatter and FIFA over the past 12 months or so. Blatter’s unwillingness to allow goal-line technology in the past, played a part in England’s World Cup exit at the hands of Germany. And England’s 2018 World Cup bid failed dramatically back in December.

David Bernstein Had Little Support

Blatter has announced that he has no problem with The FA, despite their attempts at delaying the election process, but it would seem from the outside that The FA may have lost the few friends they had in World Football.

There’s been very speculative rumours that The FA may attempt to break away from FIFA, and therefore forfeit all FIFA related competitions. This would mean no World Cup tournaments for England. It would also lead to there being no European spots for any English teams – something that provides a massive amount of income to the clubs involved.

There is of course, the suggestion that there are other national associations who are not happy with FIFA and how it is run. It could be possible – for example – that the other 16 nations who agreed with The FA in the election vote, could also leave FIFA and set up a new association together.

It is unlikely that this would be a success though, the only other national association to come out publicly and agree with The FA, is The Scottish Football Association (The SFA). There is nothing to suggest, that a new competition set up by the potential breakaway associations would be as popular as The Champions League. There is also no guarantee that any TV Broadcaster would want to risk the wrath of FIFA by purchasing broadcast rights to this new competition.

The Economy Would Suffer Without
A World Cup

Such is the size of The Premier League, that domestic football probably wouldn’t be affected too much if The FA were to remove any FIFA affiliation. But there would be a big hole in the bank accounts of some teams who are no longer benefiting from the jackpot that is Champions League qualification.

As mentioned above, the biggest impact for English football as a whole should The FA ever cut its ties with FIFA, is the lack of a World Cup every four years. 


World Cup fever grips the country; it has a massive affect on the economy, with the 2006 World Cup leading to Retail Sales of over £1 Billion. Added to this, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that 20% of people watch the World Cup in a pub – whilst the pubs themselves expected that 21 Million pints would be drunk across the country during England games alone.

Could This Be The Only
Time England Win?

The lack of a World Cup with England competing would have a huge affect on the economy of our country. 


Without the opportunity for English players to test themselves on the biggest stage of all, it would surely be a detriment to the future of the game, and may eventually affect the global stranglehold that the Premier League currently has on world football.

The events of the past few weeks have pushed The FA into the corner of the ‘Football Family’ room. But there isn’t really much of an option for The FA, other than to attempt to grin and bear it.


As long as Sepp Blatter sticks to his election promise of ‘four more years’, then someone at The FA has the opportunity to build what could be classed as a four year election campaign.

It’s clear to see that the reform necessary for the beautiful game won’t happen during Blatter’s reign. FIFA needs somebody at the top who is willing to make some big changes, not only to the game, but also to how FIFA governs it.

Life in Non-League Football - Quorn FC

Much is made and said about the difficulties that professional clubs in the lower tiers of English football face in order to survive each season. We see the likes of Portsmouth, Plymouth, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace have all had big financial problems recently. But what about our local clubs?

Luke Varney Before His Big Break

Non-league football is the grass roots of the English game. Over the years we’ve seen people shine in non-league football, before gracing the big time of The Premiership. Previously, the likes of Ian Wright, John Barnes and Stuart Pearce all got spotted playing outside of England’s professional leagues. And more recently, Manchester United’s £12 Million man Chris Smalling, Michael Kightly and Luke Varney have completed the step from Non-League.

Quorn FC - who will be playing in the Evo Stik First Division North in August - are based just outside of Quorn village, near Loughborough. With a population of just over 4,000 people, the club understandably has a rather small fan base. Despite this, the club has big plans for the future.

The aformentioned Luke Varney, began his career with Quorn FC, and was spotted by Crewe Alexandra back in 2003. Quorn FC became the first team at their level to secure a transfer fee a player, and allowed Varney to quit his job as a Quality Controller in a local factory. Crewe paid £50,000 for Varney, and included a 20% sell on clause to Quorn.

After his performances in the 2006/7 season got him into the League One Team of the Year, Varney also claimed the Crewe Alexandra Player of the Season award. Understandably, he was linked with a move away from the club, and eventually Alan Pardew’s Charlton Athletic came calling. Crewe held out for £2,000,000 - leading to a very large and welcome payday for Quorn FC.

‘The proceeds from the sale of Luke Varney have been used to improve the facilities of the ground. We have extended the clubhouse, built a new changing room for the match officials and extended the home dressing room.’ says Reg Molloy, Quorn’s club secretary.

Quorn's Clubhouse is One of the Best in The Division

‘As well as the improvements that took place, we sanctioned the building of a new stand, capable of holding 500 standing supporters all under cover, which was paid for completely by the club, as we were unable to obtain any grants for the construction work. This is added too the existing stand that holds 350 seated spectators at Farley Way. We now believe the ground to be almost up to Conference standard.’’

Rather than spending the bulk of the massive windfall from Varney’s sale, Quorn decided to be very careful and calculated with their money.

‘Like the vast majority of clubs, we would like to see the club go higher in the league pyramid. But as a group, we took the decision to invest the money into the long-term future of the club, rather than throw money at the team to create false progression.’

‘We’re always looking to improve the team, but it some ways it is quite difficult to attract the right kind of player. Players look at our facilities and instinctively think that we are a ‘rich’ club, and ask for ridiculous amounts of money to play. We prefer to bring in players through our youth and reserve teams, and it gives us immense satisfaction when players make the step up.’

Quorn were lead to a mixed season last time around by Manager Dougie Keast. Despite finishing 15th in the league, Quorn won The Westerby Challenge Cup - otherwise known as The Leicestershire Senior Cup - against Conference North side Hinckley FC.

The Players Celebrate The Cup Win

‘The highlight of the season was winning The Westerby Challenge Cup. As a side, we showed what we are more than capable of in a thoroughly entertaining game. There was hardly a bad tackle in the whole game, and the game provided fantastic entertainment.’

Quorn overcame Hinckley in a 5-4 victory, with former Notts County trainee Kris Nurse bagging an 88th minute winner at The Walkers Stadium. However the league campaign seemed to suffer with the cup run, hand in hand with some unlucky injuries throughout the season.

‘We were disappointed in our finishing league position, but without wanting to make excuses, we were hampered with injuries to key players on many occasions. All sides have to overcome injuries at some stage of the season, but to be up there and challenging for promotion, you need your top players to be available for the majority of matches.’

Plans are afoot for Quorn to progress in the future. Like every team, Quorn want to move up the league pyramid and get as high as they can. The timescales of this progression aren’t set in stone however.

‘Will we have Conference football in 10 years? It’s possible that we could be in the Premiership! - just as its possible that we could fall down the structure as well. A lot of things need to be right for a team to get promotion. You need planning, you need people behind the scenes doing great jobs - as well as the players and management performing at the weekends too.’

Quorn's Players Hope To Succeed

‘We have progressed from Step 7 in the pyramid to Step 4 in just over 10 years - it’s a real achievement for a tiny village club like ours, and its all down to the planning, performing, and also the tremendous amount of work by our volunteer workforce.’

Quorn’s manager Dougie Keast holds training a couple of times a week, but his job doesn’t just stop there.

‘The manager is obviously the hub of all things to do with team affairs, and he has his finger on the pulse at all times. His work is not just confined to training on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and games on Saturdays. Whether it’s the Chairman, Secretary or Manager - there is barely a day that goes by without having to attend to some ‘football business’. But we do it because we love it and we love the club, and the same goes for every other club at our level.’

As mentioned already, the club try to bring players through their own system. To keep a steady intake into the academy, Quorn has to try and attract young players before they go to their local rivals.

‘The admission prices at Quorn are on a par with the majority of clubs in our league, and our policy of free admission to Under 14s will encourage parents to bring their children at no extra cost - and hopefully get the kids involved with the club, with a view to them ideally turning out for us, and being the next Luke Varney!’

All being well, Quorn will hopefully progress in English football in the near future. The work ethic at the club is enviable to many, and with the financial footing the club already has - the club is well placed to push onwards and upwards under their current structure.


I'd like to place on record my thanks to Reg Molloy and Quorn FC for co-operating with this article.