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IF ENGLAND'S 2010 WORLD CUP qualification campaign ends in disaster, there is a clause in Fabio Capello's contract that will allow him to quit or the Football Association to ease him out - a protection from the massive compensation it paid Sven-Goran Eriksson last year. -- PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON - ONE of soccer's most successful coaches, Fabio Capello now has probably the toughest job in the game.
The Italian, who won 14 trophies with four different clubs, was appointed manager of England's ailing national team on Friday by the Football Association.
He replaces Steve McClaren, who was fired last month after England failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship.
McClaren was the latest in a long list of failures who have been unable to add to England's World Cup triumph in 1966.
Capello signed a 41/2 -year contract through the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 championship and will begin work on Jan 7.
However, he has a 10-day cooling-off period after the World Cup when either party can walk away, reported The Telegraph.
Capello's starting salary is £4.8 million (S$14 million), which will spiral markedly upwards on a bonus scheme.
It will cost the FA £26 million if the Italian stays until Euro 2012 - averaging around £6 million a year.
According to FA sources, on top of this £26 million package are the salaries for his all-Italian backroom staff.
The FA will pay £1.5 million a year in combined wages to his assistants Franco Baldini and Italo Galbiati, goalkeeping coach Franco Tancredi and the fitness coach Massimo Neri.
On top of that are generous bonuses for qualifying, reaching the semi-finals and winning a trophy.
If England prosper under Capello at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, the total cost to the FA could touch £40 million, which the governing body of the English game will insist is a justified outlay.
'When we set out to recruit the new manager, we said we were committed to appointing a world-class candidate,' the FA chief executive Brian Barwick said.
'In Fabio Capello we have that man.'
Capello will have to work for his massive salary.
He must bring tactical discipline to the England side, solve the Steven Gerrard-Frank Lampard conundrum, instil confidence in a goalkeeper, and find the ideal striker to spearhead his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.
Inheriting a team which failed to qualify for Euro 2008, the 61-year-old Italian not only has to make sure they qualify for the World Cup in South Africa but also turn soccer's perennial underachievers into title winners.
Capello, who was in Italy on Friday and will be introduced at a news conference in London tomorrow, also has a tough job off the pitch.
Apart from a lack of fluent English, he also has to deal with a sceptical nation, many of whom wanted an English coach.
To appease critics of his all-Italian backroom staff, the FA said Capello will discuss with FA director Trevor Brooking the possibility of bringing an Englishman into the coaching staff.
Stuart Pearce, the England Under-21 coach who was at the FA headquarters on Friday, is the favourite for that role.
Four days after former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho announced that he was not interested in the job, the FA board approved the hiring of the former AC Milan, AS Roma and Real Madrid coach on Thursday.
'Fabio is a winner,' Barwick said. 'His record over the last two decades speaks for itself. At every club he has managed, Fabio has won the league title and Trevor and I were left in no doubt of his passion and commitment to bring that success to the England team.'
Although Capello's record of nine domestic titles and one Champions League triumph is impressive, he will be under pressure immediately from England fans to deliver.
Because England failed to qualify for next year's Euros, the team will have no competitive matches until qualifying for the 2010 World Cup begins in September.
His first match in charge will be the Feb 6 friendly against Switzerland at Wembley, followed by a March 26 trip to Paris to face France.
A renowned disciplinarian, Capello will not hold back from dropping some of the biggest names in the team.
There is speculation that he will take the captaincy away from Chelsea's John Terry, who has had disciplinary problems on and off the field.
The only player Capello has first-hand experience of coaching is David Beckham, the Los Angeles Galaxy star who helped Capello win the Spanish title with Real Madrid last season.
AP, AFP
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