Terry not in Bernstein's thoughts

FA chairman David Bernstein insists he has yet to receive any notification of John Terry's, pictured, England return
9 May 2013

John Terry is yet to inform the Football Association that he wants to come out of international retirement, chairman David Bernstein has confirmed.

Reports two weeks ago suggested that Terry was willing to end his England exile this summer. The Chelsea captain won his 78th cap at the start of the season but he quit the national side in September as the FA opened up a disciplinary case against him for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand.

Terry was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence, relating to the incident with Ferdinand during Chelsea's game at QPR in October 2011, but the FA banned him for four matches, and Bernstein said: "John Terry always takes his football seriously and therefore I took his retirement seriously. Until I hear to the contrary - he stays retired."

The retirement of Bernstein - with whom Terry does not have a good relationship - was cited as one of the reasons why the centre-back could come out of international retirement, but the FA chairman insists he has yet to receive any notification of the defender's return.

The extent of the rift between Bernstein, who will step aside later this month when he turns 70, and Terry was exposed last month when the Chelsea skipper refused to shake the 69-year-old's hand at the Champions League handover ceremony at Wembley.

Bernstein dodged a question on whether he would welcome the 32-year-old back in to the fold.

"I think that's an academic question because he's in retirement," Bernstein said. "He's not announced he's coming out of retirement - and if he did the initial decision will be down to the manager."

Bernstein has made it one of his priorities to bring in more stringent punishments for racism before he leaves office. The FA chairman is hopeful of announcing a new raft of initiatives following next week's FA Council meeting.

"I'm hoping next week we will be announcing the first tranche of successes," he said. "We don't have to follow UEFA (who want to impose a 10-match ban for racism). Ours is a very detailed and thought-out proposal. It is not likely to be exactly in line with UEFA's.

"Ours will have a minimum but it will have a clear acceleration from that minimum. We may well yet go beyond the 10. It will be brought in."

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