Fabio Capello will continue as England manager after the Football Association brought a swift end to the circus surrounding his future on Friday.
Club England chairman Sir Dave Richards had said the governing body would need two weeks to reflect on the crushing disappointment of the World Cup campaign here in South Africa before deciding whether to stick with the Italian.
FA board members were expecting to attend an emergency meeting next week to discuss the debacle. But, after a four-hour meeting of the Club England board at Wembley on Thursday, a decision was taken to end the chaos amid the embarrassment of certain board members breaking ranks and giving their public views.
On Friday Alex Horne, FA general secretary and Club England board member, phoned the rest of the board to give a brief explanation of what had happened during the tournament before receiving what was said to be ‘overwhelming support’ for Capello to stay on.
That said, no vote was taken and some senior FA figures were said to be ‘bewildered’ by the speed with which the decision was reached.
New FA chairman Roger Burden insisted any decision should not be influenced by the pay-off, believed to be over £6million, Capello would have received had he been sacked.
But Capello’s salary has been a central issue since a verbal agreement was reached with former chairman Lord Triesman to remove the break clause in his contract.
Doubts remain over the future of Franco Baldini, but England’s general manager will hold talks with Capello and the FA on his return from a trip to Italy to visit his father, who has been unwell.
In a statement yesterday, Capello expressed how determined he was to prove he can replicate the success he has enjoyed as a club manager on the international stage.
‘I am more determined than ever to succeed with the England team,’ he said. ‘Sir Dave Richards has called me to tell me everyone at the FA wants me to continue.
‘I explained it is very important we use the disappointment as a motivation. I can assure the fans I am now fully focused on our European qualifying fixtures, starting with the friendly against Hungary in August.
We will look to introduce new players to give the team new energy and I will use all my experience to take England forward. I am extremely proud to be the England manager.’
Richards said: ‘After fully discussing our performance we remain convinced that Fabio is the best man for the job, and confident he will benefit from his first international tournament and this will make us stronger for the Euro 2012 campaign.’
Capello can now continue with the holiday he went on within hours of his arrival back in London, and start preparing for the friendly with Hungary on August 11 and then the Euro 2012 qualifying programme, which starts with a home game against Bulgaria on September 3.
He has already offered a list of players who were not in South Africa who can hope to be involved, including Manchester City winger Adam Johnson, Arsenal trio Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere and Fulham forward Bobby Zamora.
'We will look to introduce new players to give the team new energy and I will use all my experience to take England forward,' said Capello.
'I am extremely proud to be the England manager, it means so much to me and I am determined to succeed.'
But Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp revealed on TalkSpor t last night: ‘I’ve spoken to a few players in the squad and they all felt the same, that they weren’t happy with the system.
‘They always had a feeling that they would get outplayed and outnumbered in midfield.
‘I felt we were naive in the way we played and I know for sure the players felt the same way. Quite a few players looked at it and said, “We can’t play like this”.’
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