Capello aims for last four at South Africa 2010

May 7, 2008

England coach Fabio Capello believes he will meet the Football Association’s demand of leading England to at least the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-finals. The FA revealed their ambitious plan for the next four years earlier this week, setting out a number of new iniatives to effect the game right through from grassroots level up to the national team itself.

Included in the proposal was the requirement that England reach the last four at the South Africa World Cup in 2010, or the semi-finals of the European Championships two years later. Despite the huge improvement in fortunes required after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, Capello is adamant that they can fulfil the FA’s goals.

“I am not under any pressure - I came here to become England manager with the view and the intent of doing things and I think we can achieve good things because we have got a good team,” Capello said. “You need to work all the time knowing that the road is long and you need to improve from one day to the next with the view of achieving the important targets that we have set.

“First and foremost (we must realise) the past is past. I am confident, I have a good team and I can work on it in order to achieve the targets I have been set. I need to see what players can give me so in the France game we wanted to experiment and to test various players.

“So I have been experimenting and I will be experimenting in the next couple of games and the important thing is to get ready for the qualifying campaign.”

The FA will appoint an international performance director who will oversee all national teams below the England men’s senior side. “This person will be in charge of researching, gathering information. Looking at the outside world - the football world in particular,” Capello told Sky Sports News.

“But also the sports world in order to gather the best possible information and everything we might need to help us achieve our targets. This was something that was thought out in a meeting with the chairman and chief executive and it is aimed at giving us the best possible means to obtain what we want.”

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