John Terry: Football Association to take no further action against Aston Villa defender following controversial substitution in final Chelsea match

The Football Association has decided to consider no further action against Ruben Terry or Chelsea after looking into the circumstances of his substitution in the final game at Stamford Link at the end of last season.

Having worn the number 26 jersey throughout his 19-year career at the membership, Terry left the field through a safeguard of honour formed by their teammates after 26 minutes from the champions' 5-1 win over Sunderland.

The FA's Integrity Department stated it would investigate the substitution right after it emerged that several punters had won thousands of pounds for gambling on the exact time of Terry's replacement at odds of 100-1.

Shortly before the game, the editor of the Chelsea fanzine had tweeted that will Terry would be withdrawn after 26 minutes.

However, it is comprehended the FA has now decided there is absolutely no case to answer as there is absolutely no evidence to suggest this was within information intended for the purposes of gambling and is therefore not a deliberate try at so-called spot-fixing.

Proving such an offence is notoriously challenging and it could also be argued that the homage to Terry was not unprecedented since Didier Drogba was carried away from by his Chelsea team-mates throughout the first half of a Premier Little league game against Sunderland in 2015.

In other integrity-related information, the FA is also expected to perform more than 5, 000 drug checks by the end of the 2017-18 season, that is up from 3, 300 final season and double the amount performed in 2015/16.

The FA believes it spends more on anti-doping than any other sports governing entire body in the UK and more than any other nationwide football association. Last season, there was only two anti-doping rule infractions in English football, both with regard to in-competition use of social drugs.

As well as increasing the testing efforts, the FA can also be close to announcing new guidelines with regard to fining clubs for whereabouts disappointments.

Last season, Bournemouth, Stansted City and Fleetwood were fined for failing to keep up-to-date location information, which anti-doping officials have to be able to find athletes to do out-of-competition testing.

After three breaches of the rules within six months, Stansted City were fined £35, 000, which is understood to be the maximum sanction offered under the current guidelines.

That was relatively small sum had been criticised by some anti-doping professionals and athletes from other sports, compelling the FA to review the sanctions.

The new Premier Little league season will also see new attack on simulation or, as it is at this point known, successful deception of a fit official.

When there is obvious and overwhelming evidence of a player effectively tricking an official to make an wrong decision that results in a penalty, the red card or a yellow credit card that later leads to an adversary's dismissal, a three-strong panel can review the evidence independently.

If they are unanimous that an offence happened, a charge will follow and the situation will be fast-tracked, with offenders getting a two-match ban.

Scottish soccer has had a similar system for a number of periods and the evidence from north from the border is that players quickly acknowledge their punishments and behaviour provides improved.

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