BLOEMFONTEIN // Fabio Capello insisted he would not resign after England's 4-1 defeat to Germany, but conceded he may not be able to stay on in the job for the 2012 European Championship qualifying campaign. In the week before the start of the World Cup, Capello agreed an amended contract with Sir Dave Richards, the Club England chairman, removing an escape clause that would have allowed either party to walk away from the deal after the World Cup.
That may be something the English Football Association regrets, with Capello seemingly adamant he will not quit the job. Asked whether he would resign, Capello replied "absolutely not", but he then seemed to backtrack from such clarity. "I have to speak with the chairman," he said. Pressed as to why such a meeting was necessary, he said: "I want to speak with the chairman to decide my future, to see if he has confidence in me or not."
That was an answer that seemed to raise more questions than it answered, but Capello refused to offer any clarification as to why he might think Richards doubted him, or whether there were any circumstances in which he might resign. "We have to wait," he said. "We have to think about everything." Capello admitted that England had not played well in South Africa, their 1-0 victory over Slovenia failing to balance out the memories of dismal draws against the United States and Algeria even before last night's humiliation.
"The performances were not good," he said. "We played the first game against USA not so bad and we made a mistake, but we had chances to score goals. We played a bad game against Algeria. We played well against Slovenia. "But today you are speaking about the performance after the goal wasn't given. "If the referee had blown for the goal it would have been different. From 2-1 to 3-1 we played better than Germany. That's not my imagination; I saw the game." sports@thenational.ae
