In the aftermath of Russia’s premature exit from the World Cup finals, Fabio Capello, instead of doing the noble gesture of stepping down, went on to hit the headlines by vehemently defending his record and vowed to see out the rest of his contract.
The deal he has with the Russian football federation allows Capello to earn almost 700 times more than the average Russian citizen (£6,693,750 compared to £8,773) annually.
From whichever angle one looks at the situation, it is very difficult for Capello to justify his position as he failed to steer Russia at least past the group stages in Brazil despite his team being pitted in one of the weakest groups in the tournament.
Capello penned a new four-year deal in January following Russia’s first qualification to a World Cup since 2002.
Had his contract been terminated this month, Capello would have been due a golden handshake of £15m.
Ironically, before the Italian renegotiated his new terms, the Russian federation would have been forced to pay Capello £3m ‘only’ had they decided to sack him.
In Brazil, Russia shared the spoils with South Korea 1-1 before going down to Belgium 0-1.
On June 26, a 1-1 draw with underdogs Algeria left Russia winless in third place and out of the tournament.
While defeat to Belgium was always going to be justifiable, the same cannot be said for Russia’s draw with South Korea.
Instead of an emphatic win to boost their qualification chances, Capello’s team ended up trailing the Asians before salvaging a draw. That was the only point lowly South Korea collected in the group.
In the Brazil tournament, Russia was the only team whose entire squad comprised players from the domestic league.
Clearly, this contributed to a lack of international experience as Russia’s play was marred by defensive and goalkeeping blunders, in particular.
Capello had successfully guided England to qualification to the 2010 World Cup after a brilliant campaign culminated with a resounding 5-1 home success over Croatia.
However, in South Africa the ‘Three Lions’ struggled to get past the group stages after dismal back-to-back draws with USA and Algeria and a narrow win over Slovenia.
Eventually, England were knocked out by ‘old enemy’ Germany in the first knock out stages.
At the time, Capello went on record as saying that he won’t leave the England job half-baked and that he wanted to prove his detractors wrong.
A second chance was eventually given to him by the FA.
But the decision came back to haunt the English football chiefs two years down the road as in February 2012, Capello decided to jump the bandwagon five months before his £6m-a-year contract was due to expire.
At the time, it was reported that Capello had tendered his resignation because in his opinion he was overlooked in the FA’s ruling to strip Chelsea defender John Terry off the national team’s captaincy as a disciplinary measure.
Capello’s stint in charge of the England national team was far from a success story but, luckily for him, a few months later he landed an even better-paid job with the Russian federation.
In less than seven years, Capello has now earned an estimated £26m as head coach of the England and Russia national teams.
The worrying aspect is that the 68-year-old has delivered just one World Cup win in two campaigns.
Capello will have to make sure that the host country are in good hands and that he assembles a competitive side in four years’ time, good enough to challenge for the biggest prize
Surprisingly, he defends such a poor record. It is the bare minimum Capello could have done as he is paid handsomely to see his teams making inroads in the actual competitions not merely helping them to qualify.
After all, England still made it to this year’s World Cup finals despite the fact that Roy Hodgson got a reduced package – £3.5m per year.
In Brazil, Hodgson was still the second-highest paid coach of the tournament.
Russia will host the World Cup for the first time in 2018 and Capello will have to make sure that the host country are in good hands and that he assembles a competitive side in four years’ time, good enough to challenge for the biggest prize.
However, in Brazil Capello seemed to concentrate on the present rather than laying the foundations for 2018.
Predictions are always difficult to make but as things stand at the moment no one is seeing Capello’s Russia bracketed among the major contenders.
The Russians have now failed to make it past the group stages in all three World Cup tournaments they have participated in – 1994, 2002 and 2014.
No doubt, Capello has a formidable challenge in his hands as the Russian football federation will expect the team to leave its mark in the 2018 competition.
Following Russia’s opaque showings in Brazil, Capello has his work cut out for the host country to reach its goal.
His first step will be to build a competitive side for Euro 2016 as a good showing in the France finals will elevate the team to rank among the protagonists on home soil two years later.