Mr Justice Tugendhat decided he should lift a temporary gagging order he had granted which prevented the media from reporting that the £150,000-a-week footballer had conducted an extra-marital affair with the ex-girlfriend of his England team-mate Wayne Bridge.

The injunction – imposed last Friday after Terry heard rumours that a Sunday newspaper was intending to publish details of the affair – had been heavily criticised as the latest example of the courts bringing in a privacy law by the back door.

The Daily Telegraph drew attention to concerns about the case on Thursday and the judge today decided that freedom of speech should take precedence over privacy.

The judge said that an injunction was “not necessary or proportionate having regard to the level of gravity of interference with the private life of the applicant”, adding that “the nub of the applicant’s complaint is to protect his reputation, in particular with sponsors”.

A Sunday newspaper had been due to challenge Mr Justice Tugendhat’s decision today, which prevented it from running a story which was to reveal that Terry had had an extra-marital relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, a French-born underwear model who was until December the long-term girlfriend of Terry’s fellow England defender Wayne Bridge.

The newspaper had been expected to argue that revealing details of the affair was in the public interest as any fall-out between the players could affect team morale in the England camp and even influence team selection at this year’s World Cup.

Bridge, one of Terry’s closest friends and a team-mate at Chelsea FC until last January, is expected to be named in England’s World Cup squad by the manager, Fabio Capello, but news of the alleged affair will present him with a dilemma.

Sources close to Bridge say he is “in bits” after hearing about the alleged affair.

Capello may now come under pressure to strip Terry of the England captaincy if his off-the-field behaviour is affecting team matters.

Bridge, who until last January was also a team-mate of Terry at Chelsea FC, was one of his closest friends and lived a short distance from him in Oxshott, Surrey.

In 2004 Terry and Bridge, together with a third player, were reported to have gambled £40,000 a week between them on horse and dog racing.

Terry, 29, married his long-term girlfriend Toni Poole at Blenheim Palace in 2007, in a £1 million ceremony which was largely funded by a lucrative deal with OK! Magazine. Bridge and Miss Perroncel were among the guests at the wedding.

As well as his £7m-a-year wages, Terry also earns millions from sponsorship deals with Samsung, Umbro and Nationwide, all of which depend in part on his public image.

MPs and lawyers had criticised the judge's original decision to impose an injunction, saying it was another instance of anonymity being granted “willy nilly” by the courts to enable the rich and powerful to prevent any negative publicity being published while at the same time milking positive publicity when it benefited them financially.

The judge’s decision came two days after the Supreme Court had made a landmark ruling lifting a ban on naming suspected terrorists.

The Supreme Court had criticised the “efflorescence of anonymity orders” granted by courts in recent years, which had become an “ingrained habit” among court officials without “the slightest justification” for such orders.

Lord Rodger said suspected terrorists should not be allowed to exploit the legal system to try to “hide behind a cloak of anonymity”, adding that the Press Complaints Commission was the appropriate body to deal with “any lapses of behaviour by the press”, and not the courts.

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i doubt cappelo will strip him of captaincy.

terry is a true leader, Rio just recently assaulted a player (4 match ban). Rooney is a caveman who still thinks he plays for everton, in fact united haven't had a real captain since roy keane, and was it not Gerrard who was beating a bar owner to a pulp because he wouldn't play his favorite music.

Its time for england to strip this chav of the captaincy. His father caught drug dealing his mother caught shoplifting and now him caught fucking one of his best friends main bitch.

Its time for fabio to give it to the best english defender rio or a great family man best striker in the premiership wayne rooney.

rio is the joker, i remember reading an interview given by terry incidentally that rio was more the prankster of the dressing room. Rio also failed to take a drug test so he's hardly a prime example for kids and like i said he recently assaulted another player.

i remember watching rio's tv show where he played pranks on his fellow team mates, he's the child of the england team and john terry is the leader.

both rooney and rio are dense as fuck

John terry true leader
FUCK A RIO AND FAT FUCK ROONEY
chelsea for live
inter is going down

John Terry - a great English role model for thousands of kids, who just happened to have slept with his team-mate's girl...

Can someone change the title?

But seriously, no one in contention deserves the england captain role

Rooney - Nails Grannys
Gerrard - Hard as nails beating up a dj
Terry - Russell Brand
Rio - Forgets drug tests!

Capello doesnt like destractions, thats why the official world cup song has been banned!

Another key reason why either should be captain they are the life of the squad putting everyone at ease and helping them bond unlike terry who sleeps with there girlfriends.

Where as john terry has a phd in rocket science? nigga please