BAD BOY TERRY’S COSTLY MISTAKE

John Terry scoring away from home yesterday.

Tabloid newspapers have gone to town alleging that John Terry, the England and Chelsea skipper and married father-of-two, had an affair with his former Chelsea and England team-mate Wayne Bridge’s ex-partner, model Vanessa Perroncel.

Whilst Chelsea are standing by their skipper, Terry may find that England coach Fabio Capello is not so forgiving and it is widely thought that Terry will lose t England captaincy.

Off the field Terry is also likely to find the going tough. Terry earns in excess of £10m a year through his playing contract and sponsorship deals, benefiting from promoting the likes of Umbro, Samsung, Nationwide, Pro Evolution Soccer and Swedish betting company Svenska Spel. These endorsements are now highly likely to be in the balance.

Already, Svenska Spel’s press officer, Johan Tisell, has said it would not use the star again. “It has been two years since we had any contact with John Terry and we currently have no business with him,” said Tisell. “Would we consider having business with him in the future? I don’t think so.”

The Guardian reports that Umbro and Samsung refused to comment on whether their sponsorship deals with Terry would survive the scandal. Nationwide said it regarded the revelations as a “private matter”, adding that its contract was with the England team and “not any one individual”.

The timing of this scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time for Umbro who are gearing up for the lucrative launch of the new England Away kit ahead of the World Cup. The new England away kit will go on-sale March 3rd 2010 and will be revealed shortly before then. Unfortunately, the campaign to support the launch has already started with John Terry (see above) the central figure.

The scandal has given new life to an old terrace song…… “Same old Terry – always cheating!”