Sex Scandal Costs British Soccer Star His Captaincy

Just months before the World Cup, the captain of England’s national soccer team was stripped of the role over a seamy sex scandal. John Terry, 29 and married, had an affair with a teammate’s girlfriend—even paying for an abortion—and then tried through lawyers and, reportedly, hush money to keep things quiet. “The situation was becoming worse by the day,” a source tells the Daily Mail. “(Coach) Fabio (Capello) needed to protect the team.”

“I fully respect Fabio Capello’s decision,” Terry said in a statement to the Sun. “I will continue to give everything for England.” Meanwhile, Vanessa Perroncel, the 28-year-old French lingerie model on the other end of the relationship, denied she’d been paid off, and said she wouldn’t take tabloids’ money to talk.
(More 2010 World Cup stories.)