Fabio Capello Likely to Stay On as England National Football Team Coach
It’s an England football tradition that as soon as the team is knocked out of a World Cup, speculations about the future of the manager start to surface. It’s just an instinctive reaction and there is nothing alarming or new about it. Same was the case in the last World Cup, but at that time it was already decided that Sven-Goran Eriksson would part ways with the board as soon as the World Cup was over. However, this time Capello was given repeated confirmation that Football Association wants to continue with him after the World Cup, and want him to take the England team to the Euro 2012.
England crashed out of the World Cup in a shock 4-1 defeat at the hands of their age old rivals Germany, but it looks like the FA will not let go of Capello, who is looking desperately to make good on his promise of taking England football to the next level. In the process, he will try and wipe away the bad marks left on his managerial abilities, which came up after England’s embarrassing World Cup campaign.
Capello was seeking a vote of confidence from the FA immediately after the England exit, but the FA has asked him to wait a couple of weeks while they make their decision. That was definitely not what he wanted to hear.
The signs are pointing towards the FA deciding to keep Capello. Phil Gartside, the Bolton Wanderers FC chairman, revealed that the FA is planning on keeping him, and it is just the media who has created this air of uncertainty.
Gartside has been in close coordination with Sir David Richards, who is a very important man in Football Association; he is the Chairman of the FA Premier League and a member of FA’s Board. He has also recently been appointed the chairman of the new Club England operation and since Lord David Triesman resigned in May, he is also Capello's boss.
There will be a meeting of the FA’s board on the 15th of July, and till then he will be gathering opinions from across the board and decide on what to do.
Richards, who also made his way back to England with the team, is believed to have already made up his mind to retain Capello.
Richards is believed to be the man most important as far as Capello’s future is concerned, as he would be able to give the ground realities in black and white to the board members, who are still undecided about whether they want to stick with Capello or not.
There are a number of other reasons for the FA not to sack Capello. The first one would have to be the element of cost; the FA has already removed the 2 week break clause from the Italian’s contract, which would have been handy to fire him if things did not turn out as planned, and also would have enabled the Federation to let go of him without it costing them too much.
FA would have to pay 10 million pounds to Capello if they decide to let him go, plus a further 2 million if they also want to clean up his backroom staff.
Another big reason, and probably the obvious one, has to be that whoever comes in as Capello’s replacement would have to probably start from scratch; he would identify his key players and formulate a plan according to the team he chooses. All of that may not come in place before it’s time for England to start securing a place in the Euro 2012, and considering that England were not part of Euro 2008, the FA would not be willing to take that chance.
Therefore, it does look like Fabio Capello will be carrying on with the England team; and it actually does make sense, as he has worked on the team for a while now, and maybe the fruits of his hard work may come good in 2 years’ time in the European Championships.
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