May 25 – In a move that will certainly not endear him to the majority of fans – other than those of Chelsea perhaps – former England captain John Terry says he “could not care less” about the furore over his contrived substitution against Sunderland in last weekend’s final Premier League programme of the season.
Terry, who is leaving new Premier League champions after a generation with his beloved club, received a guard of honour from team-mates as he left the field in the 26th minute – a pre-planned farewell in the minute that matched his shirt number.
Terry, hardly the most popular figure in the game, says the send-off was orchestrated following talks with Chelsea manager Antonio Conte. But the English Football Association has asked betting companies to provide information on wagers placed on the stage-managed incident during Chelsea’s 5-1 win.
The FA became involved after it emerged that at least three punters had won thousands of pounds betting on the specific time of Terry’s withdrawal – at odds of 100-1.
Terry, who has courted controversy on and off the field throughout much of his career, commented: “All I care about is celebrating with my Chelsea fans. I promise you I could not care less. Me and the fans have a wonderful rapport and have done for 22 years. Nothing that people write or say can ever get in the way of that.”
There is no suggestion the substitution was carried out in any way other than to mark Terry’s final appearance for Chelsea or that he or the club have done anything wrong.
But the move divided opinion, with Keith Hackett, former general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, responsible for appointing officials for matches, and Chris Eaton, ex-FIFA head of security and former executive director for sport integrity for the International Centre for Sport Security, both backing the FA’s intervention.
Hackett told The Daily Telegraph: “There’s a regulation and a regulation has been broken. You can’t do that.”
Eaton added: “Even the best noble cause to manipulate play creates an acceptance that play can be manipulated. In my view, it should be banned and made clear in the rules of the game – or certainly in the policies of the game – that for no reason should you falsely manipulate the flow of play for any cause, be it noble or otherwise.”
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