Soccer: Capello will end era of foreign managers

The Football Association finally made it official yesterday, that Fabio Capello will be the last foreigner to manage the England team when his time in charge comes to an end after Euro 2012 - should he last that long.

The new managing director of Club England, Adrian Bevington, previously the FA's director of communications, showed his determination to stamp his name on his new role by making the declaration public.

There has long been a private acceptance at the FA that the mood is not to take the foreign coach option again, but the organisation has never been so explicit.

Since the World Cup it has never been entirely clear who is holding the reins when it comes to sacking and appointing England managers.

Bevington and the Club England chairman, Sir Dave Richards, made the recommendation to the FA main board to keep Capello but that had to be ratified. Yesterday, Bevington made it clear that his department would be leading such decisions in future.

"We enjoyed working with Sven Goran Eriksson, and we have Fabio in now. I think the English team should be managed by an English manager [after Capello]," Bevington said.

As press adviser and spokesman for over a decade, Bevington knows only too well the pressures that England managers face. He helped Eriksson deal with the fallout from some of his worst pratfalls.

However, he has moved up a league now to the decision-making process over England managers.

Bevington also accepted there was disenchantment with Capello after England's dismal World Cup, saying: "A lot of people have a very different view of Fabio to the one they had before the World Cup. Our job is to support him as best we can. Maybe now is the time to improve communications between manager and players."

- INDEPENDENT