There was no immediate official confirmation of the report, which came after Terry met England coach Fabio Capello at Football Association (FA) headquarters at Wembley.

Terry had been summoned to meet Capello after a week of intense scrutiny of the Chelsea defender’s suitability to lead England at the World Cup in South Africa in June and July.
Capello had been under pressure to strip the Chelsea defender of the captaincy from sections of the media that have spent the last week lambasting the married father of two over his alleged infidelity with Vanessa Perroncel, an underwear model who has a son with Bridge but is now estranged from the Manchester City left-back.

Terry had been strongly backed by his club coach Carlo Ancelotti, who has insisted that the player’s private life will have no bearing on his position as Chelsea skipper, and Stuart Pearce, who coaches England’s under-21s and helps Capello with the senior squad.

But it appears that Capello had made his decision before Friday’s meeting, which lasted only 12 minutes, according to Sky.

Capello, who is due to attend the Euro 2012 qualifying draw in Warsaw on Sunday, had picked Terry as his permanent captain in August 2008 having initially appeared to be leaning towards Steven Gerrard or Rio Ferdinand.

Liverpool midfielder Gerrard was installed Friday as the favourite to succeed Terry as skipper although Capello has also spoken highly of Wayne Rooney’s leadership qualities.

Capello was left in no doubt about the extent to which the scandal has gripped the country when he was greeted by a huge media scrum at Heathrow airport on Thursday, following his return to England from Switzerland, where he had been recuperating from knee surgery.

The head coach was briefed by his assistant Franco Baldini on Thursday and it had been expected he would have a lengthy discussion with Terry on issues including whether he and Bridge will be able to play in the same squad and the possibility of further embarrassing revelations in the run-up to the World Cup.

Capello will not have been reassured on that score by a report in Friday’s Daily Mail which claimed that an associate of Terry’s management agents had offered to rent his personal box at Wembley stadium for a “cash” payment of 4,000 pounds (6,200 dollars).

The 12-seat box is one of Terry’s perks as England captain and Football Association rules expressly forbid him from renting it to a third party. His spokesman denied that the player was involved in the alleged attempt to sell seats in the box.

Although Terry has been widely condemned in the press, a poll published Friday indicated that public opinion was fairly split with 46 percent of those quizzed supporting a sacking while 39 percent believe he should keep the captaincy.

Just over half of respondents to the PoliticsHome poll felt there was no need for the public to know about the affair, which only became public knowledge after a judge quashed an injunction against publication which Terry’s lawyers had obtained on right-to-privacy grounds.

Here is the text of England coach Fabio Capello’s statement removing the captaincy from John Terry:

“After much thought, I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry.

“As a captain with the team, John Terry has displayed extremely positive behaviour. However, I have to take into account other considerations and what is best for all of the England squad.

“What is best for all of the England team has inspired my choice.

“John Terry was notified first. When I chose John Terry as captain, I also selected a vice-captain and also named a third choice. There is no reason to change this decision.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the FA, particularly (chairman) Lord David Triesman and (chief executive) Ian Watmore, for allowing me to make this decision in my own time and in the best interest of the team.”

“I have recovered well. We’ll see how things go but I think I’ll be fine come Saturday,” Ronaldo said on arriving at Obidos, where the squad are preparing for a match which will go some way to deciding if they can snatch a playoff place after a poor showing in Group One.

The Portuguese currently stand third – five points behind leaders Denmark and two adrift of Sweden, while Hungary are level on points with Carlos Queiroz’s side, rendering a win imperative ahead of an expected three easy points in their final game against Malta.

The Swedes have a tough encounter away to the Danes on Saturday.

“These are decisive matches which we must win,” observed Ronaldo, who said that team spirit was “fantastic” despite his country’s irregular showing to date.

But he warned: “If we don’t believe we can do it (qualify) then it’s not worth showing up for the national side.” Ronaldo insisted that the Hungarians were there for the taking.

“They are a physically strong team, but if Portugal play normally they will – and must – win.”

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Terry claimed Klasnic spat at him during the closing stages of England’s 5-1 win at Wembley and the Croatian has responded with an allegation of his own.

Klasnic had a double kidney transplant in 2007 and the forward, currently on loan at Bolton from Nantes, feels Terry was deliberately trying to cause damage to that area.

“He hit me with a fist exactly in the place where I’ve been operated,” he told The Sun.

“I was lucky to be wearing a protective belt. He is the first player who has tried to hit me with purpose in the kidney. He insulted me first then hit me.

“And now he has accused me of spitting at me of spiting at him? I didn’t do it. “We spoke after the final whistle and I thought we sorted everything out, but obviously not so.”

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England and Serbia have the most straightforward tasks, with both sides needing just a victory to secure top spot in their respective groups and subsequently progress to the finals.

Fabio Capello’s England take on Croatia at Wembley, while Serbia welcome Raymond Domenech’s under-achieving France to Belgrade.

European champions Spain, meanwhile, can guarantee their passage only if they beat Estonia in Merida and second-placed Bosnia-Herzegovina fail to win at home to Turkey.

Slovakia will qualify if they win in Northern Ireland and the match between Slovenia and Poland in Maribor ends in a draw.

A place in a fourth consecutive World Cup awaits England if they beat Croatia, but revenge is also likely to be a motivating factor for the home side.

The Croats prevented England from qualifying for Euro 2008 by beating them 3-2 on a sodden November night at Wembley in 2007 and England midfielder Gareth Barry says the players will draw inspiration from that dispiriting defeat.

“There’s a lot of players in that dressing room who won’t forget that night at Wembley and we’re back here again,” said the Manchester City man.

“There’ll be a few memories but it’s a different manager and a different team and although it will be in the back of our minds, we’ll be confident.”

England’s failure two years ago set in motion a chain of events that saw Capello replace Steve McClaren at the helm and the Italian has since overseen a run of seven straight competitive wins.

Croatia, though, arrive desperate for points in their bid to finish ahead of third-placed Ukraine and coach Slaven Bilic has upped the ante by claiming that England have lost vital qualities under Capello.

“They are a very different team,” said Bilic.

“They have some advantages but they are also missing something from their game. They are missing some Englishness, some of the things that have always made England teams difficult to defend against and play against,” added Bilic, who spent four years in England playing for West Ham and Everton.

Croatia’s Balkan neighbours Serbia go into their crunch clash with France in a far healthier position, four points clear of Domenech’s men and with South Africa in sight.

Radomir Antic’s side will be just three points away from qualifying even if they only manage a draw on Wednesday, but Antic says they will not be playing it safe.

“We’re not interested in any calculations, we got the result we wanted from the France v Romania match [1-1] and it’s now our turn to prove our worth,” said the former Atletico Madrid handler.

“We know who we’re up against but we’re improving all the time and we want to make an impact on the world soccer map, not just qualify for the World Cup.”

France are not the only major nation in danger of missing out on qualification, as Portugal currently trail Group One leaders Denmark by seven points.

The play-offs already look Portugal’s most likely route to South Africa, but defeat to second-placed Hungary in Budapest on Wednesday would leave Cristiano Ronaldo and co with only a mathematical chance of finishing second.

“We have to raise our heads and keep believing,” said Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz. “The game is not over and while it lasts, we have to believe.”

Denmark can move to within three points of qualification if they win in Albania, while Group Two leaders Switzerland will also be within touching distance of the finals if they win in Latvia and Greece fail to beat Moldova.

Elsewhere, Scotland can secure second place in Group Nine with a draw at home to Bert van Marwijk’s already-qualified Netherlands.

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Frank Lampard put England ahead with a first-half penalty, awarded after a tumble by Wayne Rooney that should extend the current debate over diving, before Jermain Defoe came off the bench to maintain his impressive scoring streak.

Zlatan Ljubijankic got one back for Slovenia late on but this was the perfect preparation for Wednesday’s showdown against Croatia.

A win at Wembley would seal qualification for the World Cup with two games to spare and Fabio Capello’s team look in the right frame of mind to finish the job at the first time of asking.

“At the minute, everything I hit seems to be going in, I’m delighted,” said Defoe.

Asked if he would get a chance to start against Croatia, the Tottenham striker replied: “I don’t know. Everyone wants to play, no-one wants to sit on the bench but if I come on and make an impact, I’ll do that.

“At the end of the day, the manager picks the team. I’ll just keep working hard and see what happens.”

After a disjointed opening, England quickly took control against limited opposition and are now unbeaten in six matches, while Capello has won seven of his eight home games as England coach.

With David James still injured, West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green made his fourth consecutive appearance.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was preferred to David Beckham and Aaron Lennon on the right wing and Defoe had to settle for a place among the substitutes as Capello stuck with Emile Heskey as Rooney’s partner.

While seven successive wins in Group Six have taken England to the brink of qualification for next year’s finals in South Africa, there have still been worrying signs that Capello’s team are capable of self-destructing.

Careless mistakes gifted Holland two goals in last month’s friendly draw and the lesson clearly hadn’t been learned as Matthew Upson almost presented Slovenia with an early goal here.

The West Ham defender lobbed a wayward pass into midfield, Slovenia seized possession and striker Milivoje Novakovic rounded Green before shooting just over.

Heskey underlined his importance to England’s attack by winning a towering header that allowed Rooney to scamper clear and only a superb block Misco Brecko denied the Manchester United forward as he took aim from six yards.

From the resulting corner, John Terry met Steven Gerrard’s delivery with a thumping header that cannoned back off the crossbar.

With the Croatia clash just days away, Capello must have winced at the bone-jarring nature of Slovenia’s tackling. But England kept their cool and took the lead after 31 minutes.

As Gerrard crossed towards Rooney, the England star’s shirt was tugged by Bostjan Cesar. Rooney, who had also been grabbing Cesar’s shirt, demanded a penalty as he stumbled to the turf and Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson awarded the spot-kick.

Rooney was clearly touched, but he went down easily and Slovenia were quick to protest.

Coming so soon after the Eduardo cheat storm and Terry’s claims that England players are sometimes too honest for their own good, Rooney’s fall was certainly ill-timed.

Lampard added to Slovenia’s frustration by smashing the penalty past Samir Handanovic.

Capello’s side were well on top now and Rooney should have doubled England’s lead moments later. Instead he somehow hit the woodwork from point blank range after Lampard’s corner was flicked on by Upson.

Capello rang the changes at half-time, with Defoe, Michael Carrick, Lennon and James Milner on for Heskey, Lampard, Gerrard and Wright-Phillips.

Lennon and Defoe, the two in-form Tottenham stars, combined to seal England’s victory in the 63rd minute.

Defoe knocked a simple pass wide to Lennon and the winger returned the ball to his team-mate on the edge of the penalty area.

Defoe sized up his options in an instant and curled a shot past Handanovic for his fifth goal in his last three England appearances.

Rooney was denied a goal when Matej Mavricrozic cleared off the line, before Slovenia reduced the deficit in the 85th minute when Ljubijankic got in front of substitute Joleon Lescott to head home.

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Villa missed a penalty after 22 minutes but then helped set up Silva for the first goal for the European champions just before the break.

Spain ran away with it after the restart when Villa and Gerard Pique added two inside a minute. Silva and Villa then grabbed two more in a one-sided second half.

Vicente del Bosque’s side maintained their 100 percent record to lead the group by six points from second-placed Bosnia, who beat Armenia 2-0 earlier in the day.

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The 24-year-old will be replaced by Lazio striker Eliseu for the tie in Vaduz on Wednesday. Eliseu was not named in coach Carlos Queiroz’s 18-man squad but won the Italian Super Cup title with Lazio in Beijing on Saturday.

The game is the last chance for Queiroz to fine tune his team for upcoming qualifiers against Denmark and Hungary on September 5 and 9.

After six of 10 qualifiers Portugal sit third in Group 1, seven points behind leaders Denmark.

After a photograph with South African President Jacob Zuma on Friday, a reporter asked Obama if he’ll attend the matches. “That’s my goal,” Obama replied.

The White House has said Obama hadn’t made a decision if he’d attend the event. But Friday, Obama suggested he wants to. After answering the question, the US president playfully asked, “Did you get that?”

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has invited Obama to the World Cup opening ceremony and has said Obama will try to make it. The White House said Obama has agreed to meet with the head of Fifa, the governing body of the sport, about the World Cup.

The World Cup runs from June 11 to July 11.

Africa’s first World Cup is expected to contribute R55.7 billion rand to South Africa’s economy, R19.3 billion rand in taxes and create 415 400 jobs in pre-recession figures that researchers say still apply.

“We are still confident that we know what we’ve done is fairly conservative,” said Gillian Saunders of consulting firm Grant Thornton ahead of Sunday’s final of the 2010 curtainraiser Confederations Cup.

The firm estimates that 483 257 foreign tourists — including fans, teams, and media — will spend R8.5 billion rand during the month-long tournament to be played in nine host cities.

“Soccer or football travellers are fairly fanatical. They’ve made plans a number of years in advance to come to an event like this and they tend not to change their mind,” said Saunders.

Local organising chief Danny Jordaan said ticket sales would give an accurate indication of visitor figures, adding that requests had been received from 202 countries so far.

“I have no doubt that we will see significant inflows of people from all over the world,” he said, adding that the committee used the figure of 460 000 visitors expected for the tournament.

The South African government spent R28 billion on World Cup projects with major investments in stadium and precinct development and transport projects accounting for R23.4 billion of the national spending.

“The big plus about the World Cup is that the World Cup is building facilities that South Africans are going to use,” said South African Tourism acting CEO Didi Moyle.

“We are football mad so this is a great investment in the infrastructure going forward for our country.”

Safety and Security has been allocated R1.3 billion, with Moyle saying every incident was a problem for the tourism authority.

“The issue of safety and security is one of the critical factors in the success of this tournament,” she said.

Fifa’s legacy programme will see 27 artificial-surface pitches built in rural areas and townships, where facilities were sorely neglected during the white minority apartheid government, over the next three years.

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Two goals apiece from Wayne Rooney and half-time replacement Jermain Defoe and goals from Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch helped the home side to their seventh win in seven Group 6 games.

Rooney’s double strike made him the top scorer in European qualification for the 2010 finals in South Africa, with eight goals.

England top their group with a maximum 21 points, 10 ahead of both Croatia and Ukraine.

Industrial action on the London Underground meant that the national stadium was around a quarter under capacity despite almost selling out, but the 57,000 or so present would have been impressed with England’s possession and in particular a virtuoso performance from David Beckham, playing in central midfield in the place of the suspended Gareth Barry.

Sitting in the deeper, quarterback-style position he occupied at Milan this season, the 34-year-old midfielder dictated the play in open and set play and will surely be courted by top European clubs once his LA Galaxy contract expires in October.

Portsmouth full-back Glen Johnson – selected despite being one yellow card away from a suspension – also looked composed in attack and defence and was awarded man-of-the-match.

The alleged Chelsea and Liverpool target was involved in five of England’s goals, with three direct assists as he operated almost right-winger.

Manchester United forward Rooney opened the scoring on four minutes with a far-post header from Johnson’s cross, a minute after hitting the woodwork with a close-range, reflex effort.

Retiring goalkeeper Koldo Alvarez made some good saves but was only at fault for one of England’s goals as a part-time Andorra side lent credence to the theory that Europe’s football minnows should play pre-qualifying rounds before entering the group stage proper.

It was 2-0 just before the half hour when Johnson again found space on the flank, threading the ball through to Theo Walcott. The Arsenal man dragged the ball back to Lampard who made no mistake with a low finish into the bottom right.

Ten minutes later, Rooney got his second and England’s third with a sweet volley into the top right from another Johnson cross and the half-time stats said it all – 83 per cent possession to the hosts and 15 shots to Andorra’s sole attempt, a long-range effort straight at the otherwise bored Robert Green.

Capello denied Rooney a hat-trick by bringing Defoe on at the break, while Aston Villa winger Ashley Young was also given 45 minutes in place of Steven Gerrard, who had played an unfamiliar role on the left.

Tottenham striker Defoe did not start especially well, dragging a close-range finish wide of the far post and creeping offside when given a free route to goal by Walcott.

But midway through the second half he scored twice in three minutes to take his England record under Capello to five goals.

First, Beckham played a short corner routine to Johnson, whose excellent cross was headed into the bottom left by the former West Ham and Portsmouth hit-man.

Then Defoe pounced from close range after Koldo made his only error in spilling a long-range Beckham free-kick.

Peter Crouch sealed the win with 10 minutes left, almost embarrassed after he was allowed to scuff the ball past Koldo following a defensive mix-up by the visitors.

Croatia and Ukraine have a game in hand but, even though they four matches left, England are guaranteed a play-off place at least and a win in one of their last three matches will see them qualify for South Africa as group winners.

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