LONDON, June 3 – Fabio Capello has ended speculation over his future as England coach by signing an amended contract which will keep him in the job until after Euro 2012.Capello had been linked with Inter Milan after the Serie A club hinted they would be keen on hiring him following Jose Mourinho’s move to Real Madrid.
The Italian was believed to be unsettled by the recent resignation of English Football Association chairman Lord Triesman.
But, on the day he flew out to South Africa with his England squad, Capello agreed to sign a new contract which will see him through until the end of the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine.
"I am very happy about this and would like to thank Sir David Richards and the FA for their continued support and assurances about my future," Capello told the FA’s website.
"I always wanted to stay until the end of my contract. In South Africa we are totally focused on the World Cup."
Crucially, a clause allowing both Capello and the FA to review his position and potentially end his employment after the World Cup has been removed from the contract.
Triesman and Capello were reported to have shaken hands on an agreement to remove that break clause in Capello’s five million pounds-a-year contract and the former AC Milan coach was keen to ensure that was still the case despite his boss’s abrupt exit.
Capello had made it clear to the FA that he did not want to conduct negotiations over the contract while he was at the World Cup.
He got his wish as the FA arranged for him to finalise the arrangement with Club England chairman Sir David Richards, who is now in charge of overseeing the running of the national team following Triesman’s departure.
Newly-appointed Club England managing director, Adrian Bevington, finalised the contract details with Capello’s lawyer, his son Pierfilippo, earlier this week and the deal has now been rubber-stamped.
The FA confirmed the agreement on Wednesday ahead of England’s flight to Johannesburg, from where they will travel to their World Cup base, the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus in Rustenburg, ahead of their opening match against the United States on June 12.
Richards said: "We’re very pleased to have Fabio’s commitment for another two years and it’s good that we have been able to resolve this before the team flies to South Africa.
"Now we can all concentrate on the World Cup and give Fabio and the players our full support."
