Capello out as Russia head for World Cup needing a new coach
KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS —- Two weeks from the qualifying draw for the 2018 World Cup the host nation, Russia, has no national team coach.
A deal to pay off Italian Fabio Capello has been concluded after a stand-off between the 68-year-old and the RFU which had been unable to pay him since before the 2014 finals in Brazil. Russia will be grateful that they do not have to try to qualify for the 2018 finals on the pitch.
Gone coach . . . Fabio Capello seals his exit
Capello signed a four-year contract extension in 2014 to keep him under contract until the 2018 World Cup, which will be staged in Russia but his contract has been terminated after a run of poor results.
He will thus not be present at the showpiece draw in St Petersburg in two weeks’ time which is the first time Russia will stand up in front of the world as tournament host.
Russia have eight points from six games in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, and face the prospect of needing to win a play-off to reach the tournament.
They were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in the group stage without winning a game and fled for home as quickly as England, Capello’s previous national team employer.
Reports in Russia suggest Capello has received 15m euros (£10.7m) in compensation from the Russian Football Union. The last months had also been marred by controversy over the structure of Capello’s contract.
The cancellation of his ongoing contract will at least offer the Russian one authorities one saving at a time when massive cutbacks have been announced in World Cup construction preparations because of the problems in the national economy as a result of international sanctions over the Ukraine issue.
Back in 2010, when it won the right to host the finals, Russia promised to provide 100,000 rooms for visiting supporters, far exceeding the 60,000 required by FIFA.
However a report from Reuters has indicated that plans for 25 hotels have been scrapped, that more camping sites were now planned and that boats may be used to provide accommodation in host cities near a river or the coast.
The finals are due to be staged in 11 host cities, from Kaliningrad in the east to Yekaterinburg in the east, from Moscow and St Petersburg in the north to Sochi in the south – distances equivalent to traversing the whole of the rest of Europe.
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