Capello vows to deliver success at major tournaments

LONDON: England coach Fabio Capello believes he will be able to meet the Football Association's demand to see the national team reach at least the semifinals of the next World Cup or Euro 2012.

The English FA revealed its vision for the next four years on Tuesday in a wide-ranging 52-page document which set out a number of policy initiatives for national teams and grassroots football.

One of the targets is England making the last four of the next World Cup or European Championships after its failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

But Capello insisted he is optimistic he will be able to deliver the targets.

"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 realize) 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 senior side.

But Capello admitted he was party to the discussion of the position, who will not be his boss, with FA chairman Lord Triesman and chief executive Brian Barwick.

"This person will be in charge of researching, gathering information," 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."

AFP

(China Daily 05/08/2008 page22)