Capello vows to live up to FA expectations

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 semi-finals of the next World Cup or Euro 2012.

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

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

But Capello insisted he is optimistic he will be able to deliver the targets laid down by the FA.

“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 realise) 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 England men's 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. Looking at the outside world – the football world in particular,” 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.

“This was something that was thought out in a meeting with the chairman and chief executive and it is aimed at giving us the best possible means to obtain what we want.”