Capello Must Get England to a European or World Cup Semi
The FA have demanded that Fabio Capello secures England a 'top four' slot
Fabio Capello last night welcomed the pressure of having to restore England's self-respect after his employers demanded he come within two matches of winning a World Cup or European Championship.
The Football Association set out the results of its "root-and-branch review" that was announced after England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008. And according to the targets set out by the FA's chief executive, Brian Barwick, that involves "at least" a top-four finish in the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, with a major tournament triumph required before the 2018 World Cup.
Failure to qualify for any future tournament will be met with the fate dealt to Capello's predecessor, Steve McClaren, who was sacked the day after the 4-2 defeat to Croatia at Wembley that ended England's qualification hopes.
Speaking at the scene of that failure, Capello said: "My personal objective in every team I have coached and managed is to go to the top. This is no problem or surprise for me to have these targets. I think it is important to have them and to work towards them. I think we should all be confident about this because the team we have at the moment is capable of reaching these objectives."
England fans will recall more stringent ambitions having been placed on Sven-Goran Eriksson when he was appointed in 2001. Then the FA declared its intention to become world champions.
When asked if the FA executive would resign if it fails to deliver on its promise, the FA chairman, Lord David Triesman, became heated. "I won't talk about failure before we've even started," he said. "I don't start a project I think is really worthwhile to all England fans to think what I will do when it fails. I want to see us play in every major tournament, not to be in the position we are in this summer ever again."
In its goal of qualifying for all major tournaments, the FA hopes to provide some assistance to its £6m-a-year manager as one of the other "major milestones" set out in a 50-page report, is for the FA to "successfully bid to host the 2018 World Cup".
The FA also announced plans to have the National Football Center at Burton-on-Trent up and running by 2010 and to have Wembley in profit by 2012.
The Football Association set out the results of its "root-and-branch review" that was announced after England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008. And according to the targets set out by the FA's chief executive, Brian Barwick, that involves "at least" a top-four finish in the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, with a major tournament triumph required before the 2018 World Cup.
Failure to qualify for any future tournament will be met with the fate dealt to Capello's predecessor, Steve McClaren, who was sacked the day after the 4-2 defeat to Croatia at Wembley that ended England's qualification hopes.
Speaking at the scene of that failure, Capello said: "My personal objective in every team I have coached and managed is to go to the top. This is no problem or surprise for me to have these targets. I think it is important to have them and to work towards them. I think we should all be confident about this because the team we have at the moment is capable of reaching these objectives."
England fans will recall more stringent ambitions having been placed on Sven-Goran Eriksson when he was appointed in 2001. Then the FA declared its intention to become world champions.
When asked if the FA executive would resign if it fails to deliver on its promise, the FA chairman, Lord David Triesman, became heated. "I won't talk about failure before we've even started," he said. "I don't start a project I think is really worthwhile to all England fans to think what I will do when it fails. I want to see us play in every major tournament, not to be in the position we are in this summer ever again."
In its goal of qualifying for all major tournaments, the FA hopes to provide some assistance to its £6m-a-year manager as one of the other "major milestones" set out in a 50-page report, is for the FA to "successfully bid to host the 2018 World Cup".
The FA also announced plans to have the National Football Center at Burton-on-Trent up and running by 2010 and to have Wembley in profit by 2012.
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