ROY HODGSON and his England players arrived in Krakow with the Football Association chairman, David Bernstein, insisting Rio Ferdinand’s grievances were now a “historical, extraneous issue” but no sign of the controversy relenting as another anti-racism group questioned the defender’s treatment.

Bernstein said he would wait until the end of the tournament before addressing the reasons why Ferdinand was left out and voiced concerns that the row about Martin Kelly’s call up was threatening to have ramifications in the form of adversely affecting the Liverpool defender.

The treatment of Ferdinand has already caused dismay within Kick It Out and the Manchester United player has also received backing from Show Racism The Red Card. “We support Rio and his agent,” the founder, Ged Grabby, said. “No disrespect to Martin Kelly but to leave out someone with 81 England caps who has played without injury for Manchester United since January is strange.”

Bernstein, however, would not comment on the specific allegation that Ferdinand had been left out purely because John Terry is to stand trial on July 9th charged with racially abusing Ferdinand’s younger brother, Anton – a charge the Chelsea player denies.

“Let me be absolutely clear, because I’m sure there will be other questions about this,” Bernstein said. “We have spent a long while building up to this tournament. We’re here to do the best we can, we’re here to talk about the tournament, about the 23 players who are here and I’m not prepared to discuss any players who are not here.

“It’s an issue I’m happy to talk about when the tournament is over maybe, but we are here to talk about the tournament and about the future and that’s it. We all want to maximise our chances of doing well and we believe that the focus is on what’s ahead of us – not what is behind us.”

The chairman left the clear impression that the FA’s priority is to protect Kelly’s feelings rather than Ferdinand’s. “I’m sure he is [affected],” Bernstein said of the Liverpool player. “I haven’t spoken to him personally but as far as I understand.”

Asked if that meant questions on Ferdinand were now off limits, Bernstein replied: “As far as I’m concerned, definitely. I’m sure he [Hodgson] can speak for himself, but I imagine you’ll get the same answer from him, too.

“There is no way we are talking about players who are not here. We spent a deal of time preparing for this, training for it. We’ve had disappointments in the past with tournaments, we want to do everything we can to focus on the positives going forward. And we’d hope you would join us in that, looking forward to do the very best we can with positive thoughts looking ahead and not dwelling on all these sort of what are now, quite frankly, historical, extraneous issues.”

That theme was taken up by Hodgson, in an interview for BBC Football Focus, in which he called for more positivity. “We have to try to get back to putting the church back in the village,” he said. “It’s important for us to enjoy the journey. I’m always disappointed at tournaments with the negativity that surrounds all the teams.

“I saw it in South Africa [the 2010 World Cup] and the European Championships I’ve attended with Uefa, when I’ve often come away with the feeling that I have not enjoyed it. The feelings have been very negative and people haven’t seemed to enjoy it.

“It’s a great thing to qualify for the European Championships. Only 16 teams are here out of more than 50 who started. You don’t get many opportunities in your career to play in a major tournament and we’ve got to try to make certain we understand that it’s not a bad thing to be here.”

Wayne Rooney also tried to strike a positive note, insisting that England could still overcome all the problems that have affected them since the turn of the year. “I don’t see why we can’t win it,” the Manchester United striker said. “You go into a tournament hoping you can win it. That’s the main thing. The past two tournaments have ended in disappointment but now is the time to put that right. We’ve got the players and the quality and the new manager coming in has lifted the players.”

Hodgson said: “We want to do well. The nation wants us to do well. Any team can win this thing.

“Denmark came off the beach to win in 1992. Greece won it against the odds in 2004 when nobody gave them a prayer. It’s a knockout, like the FA Cup. It’s not the Premier League or the Champions League, when the cream always reaches the top.

“It’s not a tennis tournament, when it’s always the first and second seeds. It’s a football tournament and we have a chance.”

The bus carrying England’s players to their hotel certainly has a confident slogan: “One Prize, Two Countries, Three Lions.” However, the decision to be based so close to Krakow’s main square has been questioned by the city’s own deputy mayor.

“During the night, Krakow is a noisy city,” Magdalena Sroka said.