John Terry announced on Sunday that he has made his last appearance for the England national team. The decision has been met with a range of emotions from confusion, to elation, to anger and even to relief ... from fans. The professionals however are looking at it completely differently - well, except Rio Ferdinand of course.

The Chelsea defender emerged as the clear leader on an England team that didn’t really have one. Even with David Beckham, it was more his performances that made him captain material, not his all-around personality on and off the field.

John Terry is a leader.

He's done nothing but give 110% for England and for Chelsea it’s not in his character not to. He loved playing for England - so much so that when he was mercilessly stripped of the captaincy (by Fabio Capello, not the Football Association) over sleeping with a teammates ex-girlfriend, he carried on playing.

That’s just who John Terry is – a loyal servant.

However, this time around, it all got just a little bit too much to bear for JT.

The FA has gone too far, and it’s all in less than a year. On Feb. 3, 2012, the FA announced it was stripping John Terry of his duties as captain of the England squad ahead of Euro 2012. This was a decision that even Capello said was a step too far. Less than a week after the ruling on Feb. 9, Capello resigned.

On July 12, John Terry was cleared of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand at Westminster. A court of law decided that Terry was not a racist. Imagine then, Terry’s surprise, embarrassment, and disappointment when the FA announced soon after that it would conduct its own investigation, which meant Terry faced a potentially lengthy ban.

Does the Football Association think it’s above the law? It certainly seems like it. Not only did the association decide that John Terry would be stripped of the England captaincy four months before a major tournament, which also led to the resignation of England’s head coach, but they also decided that even though in a court of law John Terry is not guilty, they are going to charge him anyway.

It is unsurprising to me that Terry has decided that enough is enough and retired from the international game, because it seems he’s not representing England anymore – he’s representing the FA – and that is something that Terry, nor any other “England” player should want to do. They are the same footballing governing body that chose Roy Hodgson over Harry Redknapp as England manager recently, a decision that baffled most of the footballing world. Then, to top it all off Alex Horne of the FA came out and said this:

"It's a personal decision,” Horne said. “I don't see how we've made it untenable, they're two very separate processes, It's something that happened in a match...That's a very different process from our England procedures, they sit in different compartments and I could separate the two in my mind, but it doesn't look like he could."

What? This guy is joking right? I mean, he must realize that the FA is the governing body that presides over the English Premier League as well as the England national team, right?

Furthermore, if the two sit in completely separate compartments, why was John Terry stripped of the England captaincy by them? It didn’t happen in an England match, so how come all of a sudden the FA get to play the victim card?

Horne is the embodiment of why fans in England grow frustrated with the FA. He’s probably never played the game beyond the pub level. Is that the sort of person we want representing our nations game? Running our nations game? Deciding who gets to be captain and who does not?

As far as John Terry, and most of England, is concerned, this is a witch hunt.

The FA had already made up its mind that it did not want John Terry as a captain and that they were going to ban him. John Terry is in the middle of a personal hearing with the FA right now and he has most of the professional world on his side.

The reason that I personally continue to believe this is because the only people whom have come out in favor of the FA’s decision to go ahead and prosecute John Terry since being cleared in a UK court of law are Rio and Anton Ferdinand.

It seems that most other players are on the side of Terry, and to me that speaks volumes. Peter Shilton (England’s most capped player) has since come out and said that Rio Ferdinand should not be brought back into the England team because of John Terry’s retirement. Shilton says “his time is gone,” and that England should look to Joleon Lescott and Gary Cahill.

The impact this will have on John Terry is minimal, he’ll continue to be one of the best central defenders in the game, and he’ll continue to play at 110% for Chelsea. The impact this could have on England, however, is massive.

Shilton said in the aforementioned interview that Terry was chosen as captain not only for his playing abilities “but for his leadership qualities too.”

Former Chelsea ace and World Cup winner Marcel Desailly echo’s this by saying that current captain Steven Gerrard is a good player but he is “a soloist, a great player but has no impact off the field in the life of the group. John [Terry] is a leader. He is the captain.”

It is no secret that Steven Gerrard is not the same captain John Terry would be. Gerrard is quiet, un-assuming, and if he doesn’t play well, he doesn’t make up for it with strong leadership. This is because he is not a strong leader, he never has been.

John Terry, while not the England captain at the World Cup in 2010 or Euro 2012, was the leader of that team. Now that the FA and the Ferdinand’s have gotten their wish to be rid of John Terry, all we can hope is for the England side not to slide too far down the pecking order. I’ve written that the England team has a bright future, and I still believe that it does.

I just always assumed John Terry would be there to nurture the next generation of stars through.

Now he won’t be there, I worry. We should all worry. Because England just lost its heart, its captain, its leader and a legend.

You can blame it on the FA.