LAST UPDATE | 5 Dec 2022
SURREY POLICE HAVE confirmed they are investigating a report of a burglary at the home of England forward Raheem Sterling.
England manager Gareth Southgate said on Sunday night the Chelsea star had returned to the UK from the team’s World Cup camp in Qatar to be with his family.
A statement from Surrey Police read: “We are currently investigating a report of a burglary at an address in Oxshott, Leatherhead.
“Police were contacted just before 9pm on Saturday, December 3 after the occupants of the property came home and discovered a number of items including jewellery and watches had been stolen. Enquiries to establish the circumstances are under way and the investigation is ongoing.
“No threat of violence was involved as the items were discovered stolen retrospectively. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.”
Family is everything to Raheem Sterling. There was a very distressing incident at his home. Sterling understandably very shaken by it, and very concerned for his family so he’s returning home. Sterling may return to Qatar should the circumstances be right. But family comes first.
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) December 4, 2022
The news of the break-in led to Sterling being unavailable for Sunday night’s 3-0 victory over Senegal, which has taken England into the World Cup quarter-finals.
It is not yet clear whether the 27-year-old will return for Saturday’s match against France, with Southgate admitting he and everyone else would have to “wait and see” regarding Sterling’s availability.
“Raheem, as the FA statement says, is having to deal with a family situation, so he’s going back to England,” the England boss said in the press conference at Al Bayt Stadium.
“We’ve got to give him time to try to resolve that or be there for his family. That’s the most important thing at this time, so we’re going to give him that space.
“It didn’t impact team selection. I spent a lot of time with Raheem this morning, but you know you have days where events happen and you have to deal with them.
“He’s on his way home and, yeah, we’re obviously mindful of him being allowed space and (having) privacy respected, so we don’t want to talk in too much detail.
“Of course it’s not ideal for the group ahead of a big game, but it pales into insignificance – the individual is more important than the group in those moments.
“So, I needed to look after the situation and then I had to pass it on to others to deal with this afternoon in order to get him home.”
England captain Harry Kane sent his best wishes to Sterling at the man of the match press conference in Al Khor.
“Our thoughts are with him and his family,” he said. “It is a private matter with him, but it’s never easy to see one of your team-mates and friends have to deal with something like that.
“We will take it day by day and take the best decision for him and his family.
“From us as a team we send him our best and hope to see him as soon as possible.”
The difference in being placed in pot 2 to pot 3 is huge.
Obliviously one is called pot two the other pot three.cant get anymore different than that
*Obviously
Damn auto correct!!
Main point being that nearly all the teams in pot 3 are better than us. How the hell did we rank above them?
@Fin Tastic. These qualifiers are based on previous Euro qualifying campaigns. Generally we have a better record than the teams in pot 3 for the Euros. Qualifying for 2012 has made the biggest difference here.
How Ireland are a pot 2 team is beyond me.most of the Pot 3 teams are far better than ireland.
It’s 40% based on the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, 40% based on the entire euro 2012 campaign (including the finals) and 20% based on the 2010 World Cup campaign (also including the finals). You get bonus points for playing in playoffs and for making the finals, so both the France playoff in 2009, the Estonia one in 2011 and the finals appearance in 2012 earned us bonus points. That’s why we’re second seeds.
Bad news is FIFA use a totally different system and things are so bad we could be fifth seeds for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers if we don’t buck up our act.
@Finn Maccul ehh no, most of pot 3 are not etter than us, two are, perhaps three.
“better”
… because Romania lost their play-off and that kept us in pot 2 by the skin of our teeth.
Some of the pot 4 teams would give us a run for our money home and away in a qualifying group!
Spot on Mick . If we’re going to be honest about this we belong in Pot 4. It’s all part of the painful process of recognizing the problem before the healing begins. It should come as no surprise to anyone if we do not qualify .
Agree, Gerry. But I’m a little more hopful this time around. All the Trap stuff aside – with anyone managing – we were always going to be fighting for third or fourth place with Austria once Germany and Sweden came out in the World Cup qualifying group.
My hope is that the new management team instill some vigour and edge on the players and we get a kind draw – then we have a decent chance under the new expanded system of qualification.
But you are right, at best, we are really a fourth tier seeded nation.
The seedings are always messed up between FIFA and UEFA, just look where Iceland are!
Got my fingers crossed for:
Greece
Us
Norway
Latvia
Moldova
Gibraltar
About as do-able a group as we can get. COYBIG!
Would love an away trip to Gibraltar.
You’d actually be going to Portugal as the Gibraltar national stadium has to be rebuilt or improved to meet UEFA guidelines. Close enough I guess :P
Expect:
Spain
us
Turkey
Poland
Iceland
Kazakhstan
I think gibraltar are in with a good shout of winning it.They’ve come a long way in the last 3 months and have some top quality players.I’ll be throwing a few hundred on them anyway!
I don’t know, I’m putting my yearly wages up for a Liechtenstein vs San Marino EURO final.
Their defence is a rock
The odds look good for us- 23 out of 53 teams qualify- 1st and 2nd in every group automatically qualify and even after that there are still 5 places up for grabs through best runner up and playoffs. Fingers crossed
If we don’t qualify we need to stop playing football!
Need to stop laying foreign games and sending our hard earned cash to England to pay woman abusing drug addict Wendy ball players.
Says the guy sporting a Celtic Jersey.
Whoa, Gibraltar are now in UEFA? That’s news to me.
Fingers crossed for years lads…
We’re going to win the euros!
I don’t know, whole of Europe is gone to pot.
I wouldn’t like to be in the same group as the North.
Ideal group…
Bosnia,
Ireland,
Slovakia,
Estonia,
N. Ireland,
San Marino
Won’t make euro 16 anyway pot 1 or pot 5 makes no difference.
Euro 16 or Hill 16.
Better not say anymore I might get bitten
Would love to draw Northern Ireland. They’re even more useless than we are. Didn’t they lose recently to the mighty Luxembourg?
Maybe they are but anything can happen in a derby.
Maybe a derby game with two teams in the same league. But we are miles better than them with better players. We hammered the Nordies 5-0 in the Carling Nations Cup.
The best outcome might be (something of a Euro-Eastern adventure):
Bosnia
Ireland
Montenegro
Belarus
Georgia
San Marino
The nightmare might be:
Spain
Ireland
Serbia
Poland
Iceland
Kazakhstan
There should be an alternative Euro’s between Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino & Gibraltar.
….who’s your money on?