Capello resigns as England Manager

Fabio Capello has resigned as England manager with immediate effect.

The Italian had courted controversy in recent days, after publicly disputing the Football Association's decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy in light of an ongoing court case against the Chelsea defender.

Capello met with the FA board at Wembley on Wednesday to discuss the matter and, after a meeting that took over an hour, tended his resignation.

"The Football Association can confirm that Fabio Capello has today resigned as England manager," an FA statement read. "This follows a meeting involving FA chairman David Bernstein, FA general secretary Alex Horne and Fabio Capello at Wembley Stadium.

"The discussions focused on the FA board's decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello's response through an Italian broadcast interview.

"In a meeting for over an hour, Fabio's resignation was accepted and he will leave the post of England manager with immediate effect."

Capello was due to end his time as Three Lions boss at the conclusion of his contract following the European Championships in the summer, but the FA will now need to find a successor to lead the squad to Ukraine & Poland for the tournament.

A press conference will take place on Thursday at noon.

"I would like to stress that during today's meeting and throughout his time as England manager, Fabio has conducted himself in an extremely professional manner," Bernstein said. "We have accepted Fabio's resignation, agreeing this is the right decision.

"We would like to thank Fabio for his work with the England team and wish him every success in the future."

Capello replaced Steve McClaren as England manager in December of 2008, but only managed to lead his side to the second round of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He was in charge for 42 England matches - overseeing 28 wins, eight draws and six defeats.

Prior to the announcement, ESPNsoccernet had been informed that the FA had already lined up Harry Redknapp as Capello's successor.

With Capello's contract having been due to expire at the end of Euro 2012, Tottenham boss Redknapp had long been tipped to take on the role, but his tax evasion case had raised doubts. The FA had been closely monitoring developments in the case but, following Wednesday's not guilty verdict, the path was made clear to offer the 64-year-old the job.

It remains to be seen whether Spurs would allow Redknapp to take on the role part-time until the end of the season, but former national team manager Sven-Goran Eriksson believes he is the perfect man for the job.

Eriksson told BBC Sport: "I think Redknapp will be a very, very good choice. He's English; he knows his football. He is doing a great job with Tottenham and has done a great job with every team he's had in the past, so I guess it will be him.

"You need to be an experienced manager used to dealing with the big names and some knowledge about international football would help. I think Harry has all these things."

At the risk of sounding/appearing racist, it will be a change to have comments from an English manager about an English Team being given in English. That said I'm not detracting from the job that either of the non English, team managers have done over the past few years.

I guess if the FA open up an offshore account for Harry then he might be interested ............

FABIO CAPELLO has resigned as England manager with immediate effect.
The FA tonight confirmed the news that the Italian is stepping down from his £6million -a-year job just four months before the start of Euro 2012.

Capello was furious with the FA for going over his head to remove John Terry as Three Lions skipper.

And he walked out today following showdown talks with FA chairman David Bernstein and general secretary Alex Horne at Wembley Stadium.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, who was today cleared of tax evasion, was immediately cut by bookmakers to take over as Three Lions coach. He is now the 4/1 ON favourite.

Insiders believe Redknapp could continue as Spurs boss for the rest of the season and assume the England reigns in May ahead of the European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine, which start the following month.



England striker Wayne Rooney tonight revealed he would like to see Redknapp in charge.

He tweeted: "Gutted capello has quit. Good guy and top coach. Got to be english to replace him. Harry redknapp for me."

Midfield ace Jack Wilshere revealed his shock at Capello's exit and thanked him for giving him his big break at international level.

The Arsenal star said: "Shocked about news on Fabio Capello...gutted to be honest.

An Italian abandoning a sinking ship....who'd have thought it..

I think he was also worried about failure in any future England matches and the damage
that could do to his future career

He's been looking for an excuse since the world cup, and the FA have been looking for an excuse to gets rid of him too. But that big money contract stopped this and the England football team has wasted 2 years. Capello didn't want to lose his money by resigning and the FA didn't want to be paying the money on top of another manager. I hope the FA have learnt from this debacle, I thought they had from Sven....twice bitten 3 times shy?

jd16 wrote:He's been looking for an excuse since the world cup, and the FA have been looking for an excuse to gets rid of him too. But that big money contract stopped this and the England football team has wasted 2 years. Capello didn't want to lose his money by resigning and the FA didn't want to be paying the money on top of another manager. I hope the FA have learnt from this debacle, I thought they had from Sven....twice bitten 3 times shy?

Thats exactly right,both would have been happy to go after the abject failure in the World Cup but the FA would have been too embarrassed to stump up the millions required to get rid.Remains to be seen if the FA have paid him up this time.

Now lets see also if we get an English manager for our English team,i have always thought that should be compulsory for all National teams.

Is it true that Alex Salmond has applied for Capello's old job?