MISSING BRACELETS, DENTIST’S CHAIR AND UNDERCOVER STINGS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OFF-FIELD DRAMAS SURROUNDING THE NATIONAL TEAM

BOBBY MOORE

ARRESTED on suspicion of stealing a bracelet in Bogota, Colombia, where England played a warm-up match in May 1970 before the World Cup. Moore was released and played in Ecuador five days later, but was re-arrested in Bogota during a six-hour stopover. He was held under house arrest for four days. The case fell apart due to lack of evidence and Moore was freed to fly to Mexico City.

KEVIN KEEGAN

IN 1974, he was beaten up by security and arrested at Belgrade Airport after being targeted for the squad’s misconduct on a flight from Bulgaria, including ‘groping’ an air stewardess and flinging cases around on the luggage carousel. Keegan, left with bruises and a bloody nose, was charged with sexually assaulting a stewardess, assaulting a security guard, disturbing the peace and causing an obstruction. The charges were all dropped and Keegan scored a late equaliser against Yugoslavia.

THE DENTIST’S CHAIR

PAUL GASCOIGNE was branded ‘a drunk oaf with no pride’ in a national newspaper after being pictured shirtless in a Hong Kong nightclub with the England team shortly before Euro 96, The players took turns in a ‘dentist’s chair’ in the nightclub, where alcohol was fired down their throats. Then, £5,000 worth of damage was done to the jet that took them home. But Gazza had the last laugh with his famous celebration against Scotland.

PAUL GASCOIGNE

TRASHED boss Glenn Hoddle’s La Manga hotel room after finding out he had not been picked for France 98. Gazza revealed he ‘went ballistic’, kicking a wardrobe door in and smashing a vase. He was restrained by David Seaman and Paul Ince before the team doctor gave him valium.

RIO FERDINAND

MISSED Euro 2004 while serving an eight-month suspension for failing to attend a drug test — the FA and FIFA had sought to have the ban upgraded to a year.

JOHN TERRY

AN UNDERCOVER reporter was offered the chance to rent Terry’s £120,000-a-year Wembley box by a third party for a friendly against Egypt in 2010 — during which Terry was booed for his alleged affair with the girlfriend of former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge. Renting outside the Club Wembley resale service would have been a breach of contract but no misconduct was found on Terry’s part. Terry was then stripped of the captaincy by Fabio Capello over the alleged affair but was reinstated a year later.

ASHLEY COLE

REPORTED for England duty in 2012 hours after calling the FA a ‘bunch of t****’ when they handed him a disrepute charge for his ‘evolving’ evidence during Terry’s trial on charges of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. Cole later deleted the tweet and kept his place in the squad.

SAM ALLARDYCE

SACKED 67 days and one game into his reign as England boss in 2016 after an undercover reporter filmed him allegedly offering advice on how to get around the FA’s third-party ownership rules and negotiating a £400,000 deal.

WAYNE ROONEY

SOUTHGATE’S first captain, his England career was all but over after he gatecrashed a wedding at a swish hotel in November 2016 as he and other squad members stayed up drinking until 5am after a win over Scotland. Rooney played only once more for England, a testimonial against the USA two years later.

RAHEEM STERLING

DROPPED for a Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro last November after a fight with team-mate Joe Gomez at St George’s Park.