Capello severs link with index

Fabio Capello will cut his ties to the controversial ‘Capello Index’ while he remains the England manager, the Football Association (FA) said Monday.

The www.capelloindex.com website, which went live on Saturday, ranks players based upon a system devised by Capello himself.

However, it proved a source of embarrassment for the Italian when most of Capello’s own England squad received low ratings for their performances at the recent World Cup.

Capello, who insisted the site had gone ‘live’ at the weekend without his prior knowledge or approval, demanded it be taken down, having tried to forestall controversy by not issuing the rankings during the World Cup itself. But on Monday it was still possible to view the site.

Senior FA official Adrian Bevington told the governing body’s website on Monday that Capello would no longer have an involvement with the site while still manager of England.

“After the developments of the weekend, this will not happen while Fabio is England manager,” Bevington said.

“We have been consistent with this view, but managed sensitively.

“However, as has been made clear, Fabio had absolutely no involvement in the ratings that have appeared from the World Cup and did not give his name or approval to them.”

Even though Capello did not compile the ratings himself, their publication at the weekend can have done little for relations between the manager and the England squad.

Pierfilippo Capello, who acts as his father’s agent, said: “Fabio is very sorry and upset this has happened.

“Like me also, he is sorry for his relationship with the FA because we had told them that there would not be any ratings appearing on and of the England players,” Pieffillipo told the Daily Star.

He added: “There is no commercial value in this to Fabio – he was just interested to see and compare how the statistics would compare with his own evaluations.

“These are not Fabio’s ratings, so there is no reason why we would have to explain anything to the players in terms of trying to regain any trust.

“We are now looking to have his name removed from the title.”