The criticism that Roy Hodgson has been subjected to over his decision to replace Gary Cahill with Martin Kelly, overlooking Rio Ferdinand in the process, has been excessive.
Labelling Roy Hodgson and the Football Association as disgraceful and disrespectful, as Ferdinand's representative did on Sunday night, was very unfair. Roy holds the top position in English football and he wasn't being disrespectful: he was making a big decision.
He chose someone who can play at full-back and maybe centre-back and does not have any fitness problems: crucially, he knows that Martin Kelly is not going to break down with a long-standing injury. You cannot say the same of Rio Ferdinand, and even Sir Alex Ferguson admitted recently that the Manchester United defender can't play twice in four days.
However, you don't need Sir Alex to come out and say Rio isn't right. If you watch Rio regularly you can see that he wasn't running comfortably this season. He was kicking with discomfort and he was playing within himself for United; you can't have that when you go to a major competition.
Regarding the Rio situation. I don't think his exclusion has anything to do with the looming court case regarding allegations that John Terry racially abused his brother, Anton - a charge which Terry denies. It can't be that way; Roy wouldn't do things that way.
You have to put football first and if Roy had thought that Rio would be the best man there he would have included him. The problem is that Rio has been blighted by injury in recent seasons: you just don't know how many games you are going to get from him.
Kelly replaces him but he has had a poor season. He is another Liverpool player who has been disappointing in the Premier League yet finds himself at the European Championship. If you had said at Christmas there would be six Liverpool players in the England squad then people would have thought you were mad.
Continue http://sportfeva..com/2012/06/was-hodgson-decision-on-rightover-rio.html

First things first, no matter who england put out, they'l still mess up.
Now to the matter @ hand, I understand y he carried out that descision of leavin rio bhind and I kind of agree with him. Both rio and terry are over 30(rio-34, terry-31) and it won't b advisable to play both in central defense. So playin one of them alongside a younger and more athletic player sounds like a good plan so he dropped one. Now rio and terry have problems due to d racial issue with anton as such havin both in camp was never gonna happen and d manager had no choice but to pick one. Now terry lack of discipline shud have him dropped but being younger and slightly better on d field made them pick him.
The england captainship drama also worsened relationship btw them.
Micah richards own is not even an issue, cos he was put on standby and he refused feelin to big to be put on standby. He then made himself una