John Terry has had the captaincy of England’s national soccer team stripped from him for the second time in the past two years. This time it could be permanent though. Terry was named captain of the team originally following the World Cup in 2006 by former manager Steve McClaren. However, he’s facing a court case on a charge of racial abuse and the English Football Association informed him on Feb. 3 that he’ll no longer be the nation’s captain, but he’s still eligible to play for the team.

Terry, who is also the captain of Chelsea of the English Premier League, has been charged with verbally racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers. Terry’s trial doesn’t begin until July, following this year’s European Championships (Euro 2012) though, and it’s believed that Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard could replace Terry as England’s skipper.

England manager Fabio Capello originally stood by Terry early on in the racial dispute, but because the Euro 2012 tournament comes before the trial the FA thought he should be replaced. The FA released a statement which said he’ll be stripped of his duties until the court case is resolved. They thought the case would go to trial before the tournament, but it was pushed back to July and Euro 2012 takes place from June 8 to July 1 in Poland and Ukraine.

The FA also said Terry hasn’t been banned from the team and Capello is free to choose him for the squad as he sees fit. England’s next game is a tune-up match against Holland on Feb. 29  David Bernstein, the chairman of the FA, spoke to Capello and Terry to explain the situation to them. Capello didn’t have a say in the final decision as it was made by the organization’s board. Capello will be the one who chooses the next captain though.

The FA wanted to make it clear that their decision in no way implies that Terry is guilty of the racial abuse accusations and they won’t comment further until the case has gone to court. Terry will still serve as captain of Chelsea and Andre Villas-Boas, the club’s manager, said he’s not happy that the FA has stripped his player of the captaincy before he’s been ruled innocent or guilty. He said he doesn’t agree with it because everybody’s presumed innocent unless they’re proven guilty and Terry hasn’t been found guilty of anything at the moment.

Terry also had England’s captaincy taken away from him two years ago after he was accused of having an affair with the girlfriend of England teammate Wayne Bridge. However, the captain’s armband was given back to him just over a year later after it was revealed the accusations were ridiculous because the woman was a just a former girlfriend of Bridge’s. Apparently Bridge couldn’t handle the decision and refused to play for England and hasn’t been selected for the team since. Gerrard could be chosen to replace Terry, but he’s often out of the squad due to injuries.

John Terry, the captain of England’s national soccer team and Chelsea of the English Premier League (EPL), has been charged by British police for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of Queen’s Park Rangers. The charges, which were laid on Dec. 21, stem from an incident between the two London-based EPL teams in a recent game on Oct 23 at Loftus Road, home of Queens Park Rangers.

The Chief Crown Prosecutor for the city of London told police that Terry should be charged for the alleged comments he made to Ferdinand during the game. The prosecutor said she feels there’s enough evidence to garner a conviction and it’s in the public interest for Terry to be charged. Terry is scheduled to appear in a London court on Feb. 1.

If Terry is found guilty, it’s not really going to put much of a dent in his pocketbook since the maximum fine is 2,500 British pounds, which is about $3,900. It’s believed he rakes in approximately $235,000 each week playing for Chelsea. The 31-year old Terry of London has denied the charges and said he’s disappointed with them, but said at least he’ll be given the chance to clear his name in a court of law.

Terry has had a fine career on the field since he’s Chelsea’s most successful captain ever. Since 2004 he’s led his team to three FA Cups, three EPL championships and two League Cups. He made his debut for Chelsea in 1998 and has played in more than 500 games for the club. He’s also played 72 games for England since debuting for his country in 2003.

Terry said he has close friends of all creeds and races and hasn’t spoken a racist remark towards anybody in his life. He added that he’ll fight to prove he’s innocent and has also campaigned publicly against racism as he feels there’s no room for it in today’s society. Chelsea has released a statement supporting their captain and said the club won’t have anything else to say until the case is over.

Some fans have argued that Terry’s captaincy should be stripped from him by England, who play their next game on Feb. 29 at home against Holland. However, the English Football Association refused to comment on the incident, but an official said the league could take action against Terry if he’s found guilty.

The charges against Terry came just a day after Luis Suarez of Liverpool FC was found guilty by the Football Association (FA) of racially abusing Patrice Evra of Manchester United during another October game. Suarez, who also plays for Uruguay, was suspended for eight games of the 38-game EPL schedule and was fined 40,000 pounds, about $63,000.

The FA appointed an independent commission to investigate the Suarez/Evra incident and found him guilty. Suarez has 14 days to make an appeal and his suspension won’t begin until that time period has elapsed. The said Suarez insulted Evra by referring to his color. However, Suarez said the names he called Evra are acceptable in Uruguay. Liverpool released a statement which said the club was disappointed and surprised with the outcome, since there weren’t any witnesses to the alleged racial abuse.

While the police are busy with the millionaire prima donna soccer players who are crying over name calling on the pitch, they don’t seem to be doing a very good job concerning the violence off of it. On the same day Terry was charged, an English hooligan was found guilty of manslaughter for killing a Wales fan outside Wembley Stadium in London on Sept. 6.

There are a lot of imbeciles involved in professional sports around the world. In England, there aren’t many bigger than Chelsea soccer player Ashley Cole. The England left-back has shown over the years what a complete prat he is.  He’s already widely despised throughout most of Britain, especially by women, for cheating on his then-wife Cheryl and by men for having a wife as hot as Cheryl and then getting caught fooling around with strippers and hairdressers.

Cole also texted messages to friends before last year’s World Cup that said he hated England and the f****ng people there. Before that, he earned the nickname Cashley because he defected from London-based club Arsenal a few miles down the road to arch enemy Chelsea for a bigger paycheck. However, he earned a fine of about 100,000 British pounds on the way for lying about secretly-held meetings with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho while still under contract with Arsenal.

He still had enough venom in him to then release an autobiography when he was just 25 years old which slammed his former Arsenal teammates and other colleagues. If you add in Coles’ brushes with the law, such as driving 104 mph in a 50-mph zone and blaming it on the paparazzi, you get the general idea of what this guy’s all about.

But Cole reached new levels of idiocy recently when it was reported that he accidentally shot a 21-year-old club intern named Tom Cowan at the team’s training ground on Feb. 20 from just five feet away with a .22 caliber air rifle. Cowan was treated by Chelsea’s medical staff after being shot, but the wound was still seeping a couple of days after the incident. Chelsea tried to keep the incident quiet, but the News of the World newspaper broke the story on Feb. 27.

Why and how Cole got an air rifle into the Cobham training ground is now a question the police are interested in hearing the answer to. They’d also like to know why he aimed it at Cowan even if he didn’t know it was loaded, as he claimed. Cowan’s father would also like to hear the explanation from Cole. Apparently Cole didn’t break any laws, unless stupidity is one of them, since air rifles don’t need to be licensed in England. But the gun in question is one of the most powerful allowed in Britain legally.

Chelsea is now faced with having to reprimand him after the story hit the press. The English Premier League and/or the country’s football association may also have something to say about the incident.  It’s believed Chelsea can fine Cole two-week’s wages, which would come to about a quarter of a million pounds or approximately $402,000.