England flops fume over "joke" ratings

Fabio Capello’s credibility as England coach’s job has hit rock bottom.

The 64 year-old Italian and his advisers were desperately scrambling around last night, trying to limit the damage from the fall-out of the publication of the Capello Index ratings.

They claim England’s head coach had not authorised the release of the damning statistics on England’s fallen stars. But to many of the England squad it marks an inexcusable error of judgment by the coach dating back to when he originally attended the launch of the Capello Index in May.

A senior England player said: “I wonder how he would like it if we marked his World Cup performance out of 100 and gave him -20? The ratings are a complete joke.

“It’s embarrassing and surely he has to take responsibility for it. Given all the controversy over our collective performance in the World Cup it is an absolute disgrace that the manager has got involved in this.”

The ratings do seem flawed. For instance, it seems illogical that shot-shy Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Matthew Upson all got higher marks than Frank Lampard.

Jermain Defoe received the highest marks and Robert Green the worst.

Another England star said: “It’s bad enough the manager seems to have laid all the blame on the players doorstep without trying to humiliate us by publicly giving us woeful markings.

“Surely his position is untenable, he’s done his level best to lose the dressing room, that’s for sure.”

Capello, who is paid £6million a-year as England coach, was forced to indefinitely shelve the launch of the Index prior to the World Cup. The FA felt the ratings would prove divisive if used during the tournament.

The FA hierarchy were astonished when contacted by Sunday Mirror sport yesterday to discover that the Capello Index site was up and running - including the controversial ratings on the England players.

Pierfilippo Capello, the lawyer son and adviser to the England boss, said: “I cannot even begin to explain to you how furious I am about this. We had absolutely no knowledge of this and the marks have been published without our consult or input.

“I was with the FA in the last few days and we all agreed that it would not benefit anyone for my father to publish marks on his players.

“Unfortunately these people have published this late on Friday to prevent me taking action to have it removed. It is unlikely that I can go to court before Monday.

“It appears they have done this on purpose. I have emailed, phoned and texted them but they have refused to answer any of my calls or messages.”

Capello junior added: “I’m not surprised the players are upset but they have to understand that my father had nothing to do with this.

“Ironically we had also ruled out using the index to mark players in the Premier League because we didn’t feel it would be appropriate.

“We had taken the view that we would use the index to mark players in Spain and Italy and then we would consult the Premier League, managers, players and the media to see if this was a workable project.

“However in light of what has happened now I think that is the end of the Capello Index.”