Terry dismissed as England captain, Ferdinand takes over honour

John Terry's dismissal as England captain culminates a new era for Rio Ferdinand, who has been strongly indicated to lead England into the World Cup by national manager Fabio Capello.

And there will be niggling doubts whether Ferdinand is the right person to captain England. His off-the-field antics during his career has been almost as controversial as Terry's, including missing a drugs test in 2004 which prompted his absence at the European Championships that year.

Chelsea defender Terry was embroiled in a media frenzy in the past week over his alleged affair with model and ex-girlfriend of fellow England colleague Wayne Bridge, Vanessa Perroncel. A gagging order to censor information regarding his private life was lifted by the High Court last Friday, which meant stories over his affair surfaced the following day as he continued with club duties until Capello had recuperated from knee surgery in Switzerland.

Capello, who was granted by the FA to be the decisive figure in whether to keep Terry as captain, met the Chelsea man at Wembley on Friday. In a meeting believed to have lasted 12 minutes, Capello came to a sharp conclusion of dropping the defender as captain. The story has gripped the nation for over a week, and some media outlets have even viewed that the decision was more of a moral one than a footballing one. But either way, this will likely put a spanner in the works of England's World Cup dreams.

It completes a tumultuous week for the Chelsea skipper. He scored the winning goal in the away fixture against Burnley, and then announced in a statement that he would not offer his resignation despite ongoing calls to do so by many pundits and journalists. The Capello decision is also likely to affect Terry's sponsorship deals, similarly to what has happened with Tiger Woods in previous weeks following an eyebrow-raising scandal over his infidelity.

Capello's decision is one that has to be respected by most. He clearly wants to diffuse an extremely awkward situation in quick fashion, and is also reassuring that no figure in the team is dominant over another. His disciplinarian approach commands great respect among the players as he reasserts his authority on the squad.

I think most pundits will look at Ferdinand's form for Manchester United and England with a great deal of intrigue. He is currently serving a four match ban for an elbow incident in last 4-0 month's win over Hull, and will need to perform at a high standard on a consistent basis if he is to prove the critics that the choice of captaincy is not an incorrect one.