Roy Hodgson has admitted he’s glad he’s now free to pick Ashley Cole for England’s World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Poland.
The dodgy defender seemed to be facing a ban for insulting the Football Association in an offensive Twitter post. Cole has been in the spotlight since he was dismissed as a credible witness in the John Terry racial abuse case. Reacting to the damning verdict - which in effect called him a liar - Cole did what so many sportsmen do in the heat of the moment and took to Twitter.
The Chelsea player called the FA a ‘bunch of *****’ causing an uproar.
However, while you’d think the combination of him giving misleading evidence and his subsequent outburst would see him dropped from the Three Lions, Cole has been told he’s free to play in both qualifiers this week.
The reason for his lack of punishment? Cole said the important word, ‘sorry’, and the England boss, a known admirer, is glad he did so.
“I am very pleased the FA chairman (David Bernstein) has very gracefully accepted the apology from Ashley. I’m relieved it’s over,” Hodgson said.
“[Cole] did it in anger, immediately tried to rectify it, apologised, showed contrition.”
Cole has made 98 appearances and will become only the sixth Englishman to reach the century mark if he plays against San Marino on Friday and Poland next Tuesday. However, he’s unlikely to be made captain to mark the occasion.
“We’ve had issues and we’ve stated publicly many times that we have a very high level of behaviour and so on and so forth required from an English captain,” Bernstein added.
>> The Cole ‘crisis’ slightly overshadowed the opening of a state-of-the-art national football centre for the England team. It is hoped the facility will revive the flagging fortunes of the side who in recent years have looked poor in comparison to their major rivals.
France and Spain became world champions a decade after
building their national academies and England is targeting the same result by shifting its headquarters to St. George's Park, a move described by the Football Association as a “landmark occasion for English football.”
