Robbie Earle finds himself in troubled water after his performance at the World Cup would certainly have scored low on the Capello Index.

Earle, who was sacked early last week for passing on tickets that he, had obtained through ITV for family and close friends only. The tickets somehow managed to find their way into the hands of 36 female Holland supporters who just so happened to be pulling an advertising stunt for Bavaria Beer.

This landed Earle in big trouble with FIFA, the FA and England supporters. FIFA have launched into legal action with the Dutch beer company, whilst 2 of the 36 females have found themselves in South African Court, possibly facing jail for illegal advertising.

England fans have been complaining that pundits shouldn’t even be able to get their hands on anywhere near the number of tickets Earle had managed to buy from ITV at a discounted rate.

Somehow, I don’t think Earle will be able to pass off the troop of young females as his close family and friends, and the ex Wimbledon and Jamaica international has even been dropped as an ambassador for the 2018 World Cup bid.

This is the second issue ITV have blundered into since the World Cup began, after their HD coverage missed Steven Gerrard’s early opener against USA. With all the bad press around at the moment, they’ll have certainly been hoping for a Gary Lineker love rat story to break at any moment for them. However in true fashion bad things do tend to come in 3’s, and although we can’t firmly put the blame on ITV for England’s lacklustre performance and 4-1 capitulation to Germany so it would seem they are now through the worst of it.

They missed one of England’s 3 world cup goals, one of there pundits sold on tickets and made them and himself look like rather stupid, and before they could redeem themselves England managed to knock themselves out of the competition. Never mind, 4 more years!