Fabio Capello refuses to resign before crisis meeting

Dominic Fifield at Free State Stadium
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 June 2010 22.5

Wayne Rooney complains to the linesman Mauricio Espinosa after he failed to allow a first-half 'goal' by Frank Lampard. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images

Fabio Capello will meet the Football Association tomorrow seeking evidence of its continued support but has ruled out resigning as England manager following his team's humiliating elimination from the World Cup.

The national side's manager of two‑and-a-half years will discuss his future with Sir Dave Richards, chairman of Club England, having made it clear he will not voluntarily quit his position with two seasons to run on his £6m-a-year contract. Instead, the onus will very much be on the FA to sack him if it wishes to instigate a change ahead of the start of the side's qualification campaign for Euro 2012.

England's worst defeat at the World Cup provoked suggestions from some players of deep-lying disquiet within the set-up, with Joe Cole stressing that "a lot of issues" needed addressing. Yet, asked whether he would now consider his position, Capello said: "Resign? No. Absolutely not. I have to speak with the chairman, but we have time to decide. We have to wait until I come back to London. But I want to speak with the chairman to decide my future. I want to see whether he has confidence in me or not."

The FA offered the Italian its public backing last night ahead of the talks, which are expected to take placebefore the team's departure from South Africa. "Our position has been consistent and it has not changed in my mind whatsoever," said Adrian Bevington, the newly appointed managing director of Club England. "Clearly, Fabio needs to speak with Sir Dave and, beyond that, I cannot say anything further.

"There is a board – Sir Dave, myself, Sir Trevor Brooking and the chief executive, Alex Horne – and we work into the main FA board as well. But nothing has changed in my mind from before the game."

While the Italian pointed to the failure of the Uruguayan linesman Mauricio Espinosa and referee Jorge Larrionda to award a legitimate Frank Lampard goal seven minutes before the interval as key to this defeat – the ball cannoned down from the crossbar and clearly beyond the goalline – his players departed hinting at disharmony behind the scenes after a largely lacklustre and deflating performance at this tournament.

"I am devastated," said the little-used Cole. "What can you do? We will go away and start again, but we have to address the problems that are there. There are a lot of issues. I don't know what to say, to be honest. We just weren't good enough, and we have to look at ourselves as a group.

"We weren't good enough from the start of the friendlies, over the six games we've played, so it is back to the drawing board. The manager's future is a question for him. He is a great manager and we have got great players but there are issues we need to address. We do feel we have let ourselves, the manager and the fans down."

The captain, Steven Gerrard, did put his support behind Capello but suggested there would have to be changes in personnel if England were to challenge at Euro 2012, with an ageing squad in need of regeneration. "We'll have to see what the future holds," said the Liverpool midfielder. "We've got an experienced team and players who are getting on, and I'm sure there'll be changes by the time the next tournament comes around

"The manager is disappointed obviously. He was only in the dressing room briefly after the game but you could see the disappointment on his face. I'm sure Fabio will stay and he'll address his own situation very soon. Personally, I'd like him to stay as I think he's a fantastic manager."

Capello admitted his players had been jaded at the finals but departed with a sense of deep injusticeafter Lampard's equaliser went ignored. "To have got back to 2-2 would have been different with the psychology or the mind of the players," he said. "Sometimes the most important thing is what you think. The mistake was incredible. That there is no technology ... We play with five referees and they cannot decide whether that is a goal or not? That would have made the game completely different.

"I saw from the bench that the ball had gone over the line, so I do not understand how the referee and the linesman did not see it. It's incredible. Look, I know we arrived here probably a little bit tired at the end of the season. Always. But we suffered today because of Germany's speed, and because a big mistake from the referee that was too important for us to go forward [in the tournament]. We made some mistakes, but the referee made bigger mistakes."

Lampard was angry at the error but added: "Maybe we showed a bit of desperation and naivety in trying to push and push. We were caught on sucker punches in counter-attacks. It is the story of the game: nobody can stand here and tell me Germany were a lot better than us. They were not 4-1 better than us. But things have conspired against us. Maybe we have conspired against ourselves at times, but it just didn't go for us."