FA facing minefield ahead of Euro 2012, warns Gary Neville

Gary Neville has warned the Football Association that they face a race against time ahead of England’s participation in this summer’s European Championships.

The Three Lions’ preparations for the tournament in Poland and the Ukraine have been hampered by a lack of leadership following the FA’s decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy in February, which prompted the resignation of manager Fabio Capello just five days later.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp remains the favourite to succeed the Italian but Wembley chiefs will abstain from decision-making until the end of the season so as to not unsettle potential candidates.

Terry’s battle against allegations he racially abused Anton Ferdinand will be taken to court in July, throwing up further problems – and former Manchester United defender Neville, now a pundit for Sky Sports, admits that the FA face a minefield as they prepare to head into this summer’s tournament.

“The England manager has started being mentioned again this week, we are going into a tournament and who is taking the team, what tactics are we going to play, what principles?” he said at Soccerex’s European Forum in Manchester.

“They say they are going to wait until the end of the season, that’s 13 May.”

He added: “There’s something brewing at the moment. There are situations still not being dealt with.

“There are player situations going into the tournament, there are manager situations going into the tournament, it’s going to come pretty quickly. It’s April next week. There’s manager, there’s player, there’s captain, there’s [a] court case – it’s not going to go away.

“And the FA at this moment in time are in a difficult position as always. If they actively go in there now and do something then it will be like a bull in a china shop, if they step away it’s a very difficult position to be in.

“I do fear that there’s no right or wrong at times, just do your best, but I do feel the vultures are circling.”