It is, of course, excellent news for England that UEFA reduced Wayne Rooney’s suspension following his red card against Montenegro even though it would have been ridiculous had Fabio Capello otherwise seriously considered leaving the player out of the squad for Ukraine.

How many world class players do England have? There isn’t a long list.

However, there is the whiff of hypocrisy in the air.

What Rooney did in that European Championship qualifier was unquestionably violent conduct as well as being utterly stupid.

In the Premier League you automatically get a three match ban for that sort of thing and, if the appeal is considered ‘frivolous’ i.e. the conduct was violent, then it usually increases to a four match suspension.

So what the FA did was ‘lean’ on UEFA’s likely leniency towards the affair — the organisers don’t want star players missing next summer.

It hardly sets the right example, does it.

Mind you, Rooney’s form needs to be more like that he showed against Wolves.

What a miss that was in Switzerland.