Soccer: Capello to publicly rate England players

Fabio Capello will publicly rate his own England players' performance in World Cup matches and publish the results on the internet, in an extraordinary new business venture announced by the Italian today on the eve of his squad announcement.

The England manager, who has been so guarded during more than two years in the job, launched a player rating system that he hopes will become the basis for the internet's biggest virtual football management game. However, it also opens the door for huge controversy with the England players' performances being judged and ranked according to Capello's own criteria.

The "Capello Index" has the potential to be an embarrassment to Capello and the FA, ranking his players' performance within two hours of World Cup matches finishing. The launch came on the eve of him announcing the 30-man provisional squad for next month's World Cup finals at Wembley.

Capello tried to play down the project as a bit of fun but it represents the first gaffe of an era that has hitherto been sure-footed in contrast to some of the Italian's predecessors. It is a private business venture and not connected to his £6m-a-year job with the Football Association.

The "Capello Index" judges players upon 105 different criteria drawn up by Capello which have in turn been finessed into a ratings system by an Italian professor of sport and an internet entrepreneur, who are business partners of the England manager. Capello even jokingly admitted that the ratings of the players may influence his thinking on selecting tomorrow's squad and the final 23 who fly to South Africa on June 2.

The England manager learnt that he will not be able to take Gareth Barry to South Africa, confessing that the length of time needed to recover from his ankle injury was "too long". Capello said he has just "two decisions" to make on the 30-man squad, one of which is reliant on the fitness of a certain player.

Capello denied that the ratings system, which is currently free to access, could potentially be divisive for his squad. "I remember that when I was a player I understood that sometimes my performance wasn't good," he said. "Sometimes it is easy to speak to players and say look at your index [score] you have to improve! You have to train more!"

Even the current standings in the Capello Index show the potential for controversy. It currently only rates players from the top six teams in the Premier League from the last four weeks. Frank Lampard is the top-rated English player followed by Ledley King, both of whom are likely to make the squad but after that the top four rated Englishmen are Michael Dawson, Paul Scholes, Sol Campbell, Joe Cole and Gary Neville.

Joe Cole and Michael Dawson are both borderline choices for the 30-man squad and very unlikely to make the final 23. Campbell and Neville have been discarded by Capello and Scholes retired after Euro 2004. It does not say much for Capello's current squad.
Capello said he had not been paid by Chicco Merighi, the internet entrepreneur who developed the Capello Index with him, but instead was a stakeholder in the company. The website offers users the option of paying up to £199.99 to compete for prizes of up to £1600 and could potentially cash in on the lucrative online gaming market. In defending the timing of his announcement - and the potential for upsetting his players - Capello said that the one factor his criteria did not take into consideration was the "mentality" of the players.

"It is not only about the performance but the value that the players bring to the mentality of the team," he said. "Some players are really good on the pitch and not good when they are with the national team. When I selected David [Beckham] you always asked me why. David played only ten, 20 or 30 minutes a lot of the time. But he was really important for the dressing room spirit. [If I just relied on the index] I cannot select the Liverpool players because their performance was not that high."

- INDEPENDENT