Russia offer England's Fabio Capello a lucrative deal to move to Moscow - 7M sport

Russia offer England's Fabio Capello a lucrative deal to move to Moscow



Posted Friday, March 05, 2010 by BBC.com

Russia offer England's Fabio Capello a lucrative deal to move to Moscow
Fabio Capello pictured at Stamford Bridge before Chelsea played Manchester City, on the day he met the head of the Russian FA.

The Russian Football Union has made an approach to Fabio Capello about leaving England after the World Cup in South Africa and taking up a new and highly lucrative position as coach of their national team.

The new head of Russia's Football Union, Sergei Fursenko, flew to London to pursue Capello last week. He held informal talks with the England manager at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, meeting him during Chelsea's 4-2 home defeat to Manchester City.

According to the Sovietsky Sport newspaper, Fursenko is keen for Capello to replace Guus Hiddink, who is taking over as the national coach of Turkey. The Dutchman's contract with Russia expires this June – with Russia now determined to find a "big name" world-class coach to replace him.

Capello is one of between five and eight candidates currently under consideration, it is understood. The England manager responded politely to the Russian approach last weekend in London, the newspaper reported, but made it clear that any negotiations would have to be carried out via his agent.

It also claimed that Russia would be able to offer Capello more than his present England salary. Although Capello is earning £6m a year from the FA, the sum is taxed at 50% – unlike in Russia where Hiddink receives €7m (£6.3m) a year tax free.

Although Capello spoke in conditional terms last week about his continued involvement with England after the World Cup, the Football Association is certain he will stay on. In recent weeks he has spoken warmly of his experience here and his spokesman said of the link with Russia: "Fabio is under contract until 2012."

Russian observers believe that Capello is growing frustrated with the media coverage of his players' private lives, and that his reputation as a disciplinarian is just what the Russian squad needs following damaging allegations of indiscipline during their unhappy World Cup qualifying campaign.

The RFU has several other candidates on its list, among them the Italian national coach, Marcello Lippi, and Luciano Spalletti, the former Roma coach who is now manager of Zenit St Petersburg. Hiddink's last game as national team manager took place on Wednesday with Russia drawing 1-1 against Hungary.



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