Capello index cock-up

Before the World Cup England coach Fabio Capello helped to develop an index on the net that rated players performances at the tournament. It was known as the ‘Capello Index’. It rated players based on analytical information being fed into the index.

Controversy

There was much controversy about the Index and Capello distanced himself from it prior to the tournament. However, last week the index was published and the England players did do very badly!

Capello was, apparently, ‘very sorry and upset’ after seeing the player ratings released to the public.

His son and agent, Pierfilippo, said,

“Fabio is very sorry and upset that this has happened. Like me also, he is sorry for his relationship with the FA because we had told them that there would not be any ratings appearing on any of the England players.

“The FA were not happy about anything coming out which would concern players Fabio was or could be selecting. So to find out that the opposite has happened just a day later was something we were all unhappy about.

“There is no commercial value in this to Fabio, nor has there ever been. He was just interested to see, and compare, how the statistical side of things would compare with his own evaluations.

“These are not Fabio’s ratings, so there is no reason why we would have to explain anything to the players in terms of trying to regain any trust.

“We are now looking to have Fabio’s name removed from the title.”

It was clearly wrong of Capello to get involved in this project and I am slightly surprised that Pierfilippo isn’t described as his son and EX-agent!

Trust

It has been said that the players were unhappy by this index and that Capello has some way to go to mend the trust he has in his relationships with the players. I would have thought that it is Capello who needs the trust repaired. Surely he trusted the players to give their best and play their best at the World Cup? That certainly didn’t happen.

It may have been a slight error of judgement on Capello senior or Capello junior’s part but I am not entirely sure what he now has to apologise for.

News

The ratings of the England players are not his. The ratings show that England were abysmal. That is hardly news to anyone. The ratings are fairly meaningless and I don’t really see how they matter at all.

It just seems that this another excuse being put forward to explain the apparent tension in the England squad and the lack of performance on the pitch.

I think this is very unlikely. The players know how bad they were and the ratings on the Capello index were certainly no worse than the ratings they received in the media after the games. I’m sure that once Capello has had his name removed from the title, the controversy, such that it is, will go away.