ESPN STAR Sports presenter Christy Simson talks to former England international Paul Parker about the ramifications of the ongoing John Terry racism row.

By Christy Simson

John Terry has the most influential job in English society, more so perhaps than Prime Minister David Cameron. He is the captain of the country's football team. Millions of young people watch his every move, week in week out at Chelsea. Cameron appears occasionally on the 10 o'clock news.

Speaking to former Manchester United player Paul Parker, it becomes clear that captaining England at EURO 2012 is more important than life itself for Terry.

"It will give him legendary status and a nice after-glow to a trophy-decked career," says Parker.

But when Terry said what he (allegedly) said to Anton Ferdinand on October 21 in a Premiership game between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers, he put all that in jeopardy. The 30 year old has since been charged with racial abuse.

His lawyers will have shown him the evidence which is also there for everyone to see on You Tube, and it is extremely damning.

As Parker puts it "This is entirely different to the ‘Luis Suarez - Patrice Evra' situation, There is no language barrier here. Terry ‘s words were very clear."

So desperate is the man from East London to hold onto his armband that his lawyers have delayed the trial until July 9th which is after EURO 2012. The reason? Many of the Chelsea players would be unable to attend due to footballing commitments.

The move backfired. The media and twitter world erupted. Jason Roberts, a striker at Blackburn Rovers, tweeted the "England dressing room would be toxic unless the correct decision is made". He was referring to the fact that Anton Ferdinand's brother Rio will very likely be selected in the England squad. Members of Parliament accused Terry of being an embarrassment and called for him to be stripped of the captaincy. From the Terry Camp came the statement ‘I will not resign'.

There are also more immediate questions. This weekend Chelsea play Rio Ferdinand's Manchester United. Will the pair shake hands, as they have been ordered to by the Football Association, before the match?

For many in the game the whole situation is a running sore, made raw by constant needling from the media. "The FA should have dealt with this straight away, " says Parker. "Chelsea should have made sure Andres Villas Boas kept quiet and did not come out in support of Terry. They should have assembled the facts and punished the player themselves. This is just a ‘drip drip' situation for the media - it's great for selling newspapers. It's just bad for the game.'

Twenty years ago, when Parker was active, abusive players got away with it, because there simply weren't enough cameras to catch them.

"Some players said a few nasty things to me, but no one did anything about it. If I'd have said anything - they'd have labelled me as weak, and I'd have been out of the club."

Parker frequently heard the epithet "there ain't no black in the Union Jack" from the fans, but he said it made him stronger, and he played better.

But Parker is very clear. The camera showed Terry saying something extremely unpleasant and the fact that he remains at the top of the country's most influential sport is an embarrassment .

"If Terry's not going to go he needs to be pushed ... now!"

The problems are only just starting for the FA who are thought to be engineering a compromise where they strip him of the captaincy but allow him to compete for his England place. But how about the punishment? If Suarez was banned for 8 games on evidence that was largely circumstantial, what do they hand out to Terry?