No, common decency should have driven him to stand down first.

All he needed to do was release a statement along the lines of "It is with regret that, given the allegations made against me, I have decided to stand down from captaincy of the national team. I think that would be best for the image of the FA and the team. Once the scandalous and untrue allegations have been proven false in a court of law I would be honoured to take up the captaincy if Mr Capello would like to select me again."

Done. And would gain a ton of credit with everyone. Even people who can't stand him and think he's a c**t, like me.

Posted By: Arizona Bay, Feb 3, 10:32:59