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Capello To Tell Players First About World Cup Squad

Fabio Capello will tell his England stars their World Cup fate in a group meeting to unveil his 23-man squad for the finals in South Africa.

England coach Capello will take a preliminary group of 30 players for a week of training in Austria leading up to a friendly against Japan on May 30 and the Italian will then gather his players to let them know if they have earned a place in the final squad.

The England squads for the last two World Cups were announced publicly by Sven-Goran Eriksson, with the players finding out whether or not they were included through the media.

But Capello is keen to let his players know their fate himself and he told The Mail On Sunday: “The last week we are training in Austria. Before the last game we play with Japan we have to decide.

“There will be a meeting with all the players. I will speak with them together and say, ‘Thank you very much but I have to choose’.

“It’s not the best moment for me. I would like all the players to be with me. They are very good players.

“I hope to take 30 players to Austria but these are difficult moments, with the FA Cup final and the Champions League final at the same time.

“At the moment I have 30 players in my mind, the last one was the centre-back Ryan Shawcross, as you know. These are the players from which I will choose the 23.

“It will be during one meeting and after that we will speak to the media. I think it will be important for all the players to know my decision at once.”

Blatter Not Ruling Out Using Technology in The Future

World football chief Sepp Blatter said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that he might consider video assistance for referees in the future.

The president of world football’s governing body FIFA has staunchly opposed the use of video replays as a refereeing aid because they would interrupt the flow of the game.

But he told the Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick that he might consider them after other technology has been approved.

“I’m not completely against it. But only when goal line technology is ready to be introduced, only then,” he said.

The guardian of football’s rules, the International Football Association Board, is due to discuss electronic goal line technology, including computer chips in balls and goalmouth cameras, at its meeting in March.

Blatter again ruled out the introduction of such aids in South Africa this summer.

“We won’t carry out any experiments there, not even with two extra referees,” he added.

Two additional assistant referees are being lined up in Europa League matches this season in a trial aimed at improving surveillance of incidents in penalty box.

In December, FIFA’s executive committee also ruled out the introduction of video technology to assist referees similar to the system used in rugby, cricket and tennis.

Pressure for refereeing aids surged again with the furore that followed Thierry Henry’s blatant handball in a World Cup playoff against Ireland in November that saw France qualify for the finals.

US agree El Salvador friendly

The United States have added to their pre-World Cup friendly schedule, announcing a match with regional rival El Salvador on Thursday.

The Americans, already slated for games against Honduras and the Netherlands, will play the Salvadorans in Tampa, Florida, on 24 February. The match will be a chance for Tampa to show its worth as one of the venue finalists in the Americans’ World Cup bids.

USA manager Bob Bradley feels that El Salvador gave his side fits in qualifying for the World Cup, and he also feels the match is an adequate preparation for his team.

“This game will be an important part of our preparations, providing us with one of the last opportunities to evaluate the players being considered for the World Cup roster,” Bradley said to the media on Thursday.

The USA plays Honduras on 23 January in Los Angeles, and the Netherlands on 3 March in Amsterdam. Their first World Cup match is against England on 12 June in Rustenburg.

World Cup Qualifying Complete

Just over two years ago the draw for the qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Cup was conducted. Now it has come to an end and all 32 teams that will compete in South Africa are finalised.

The draw for the tournament proper will be done in two weeks and everyone is waiting to see what that will result in. Regardless of it, Spain and Brazil are going to be the favourites. The two are the best two teams in the world and it will be fascinating to see how far apart the draw keeps them.

Off the bat you can tell that South Africa’s group will be the weakest of the four. As the host, they are seeded and placed in Pot A along with the likes of Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, England and the aforementioned Spain and Brazil. There is clearly a gulf in standard with South Africa and the other seven sides. Soccer betting is going to be monitoring this closely.

Pot B contains the other eight European sides. Netherlands are here and should be in Pot A. So wherever Netherlands or for that matter Portugal end up will result in the much-loved Group of Death.  Then again it will be evened out if they end up in South Africa’s group.

Pot C consists of the other four African and the other three South American teams. None of these teams will be a pushover and the most difficult would be Ghana or Ivory Coast.

In Pot D are the four Asian sides, the three CONCACAF teams and New Zealand from Oceania. The best case scenario for one of the top teams wanting to progess is either North Korea or New Zealand.

Having a look at who won’t be there and it’s a sorry tale. The fairytale run of Guus Hiddink is finally over after he couldn’t get Russia to the World Cup. They needed luck to get them to Euro 2008 and they did very well there so this one will really sting. They haven’t made it through to the knock-out round of the World Cup since 1986. It remains to be seen if Hiddink will hang around. No doubt he will have countless chequebooks from both clubs and countries put in front of him.

The Czech Republic will be trying to work out what went wrong with their lacklustre qualifying campaign. All four playoff losers will be licking their wounds and Ireland will be gutted to have gone out in such a controversial fashion. Egypt will be looking for revenge and Costa Rica will be ruing that last minute goal against the USA which put them into a playoff against Uruguay that they would lose.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about harness betting.

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