Capello quits England job

England remain 8/1 shots to win Euro 2012 following the resignation of boss Fabio Capello with immediate effect.

The Italian has gone after a fall-out over the decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy last week, with the Chelsea skipper facing a trial over alleged racist comments made to QPR’s Anton Ferdinand earlier in the season.

The FA must now find a man to prepare the Three Lions for the European Championships and also the programme of international friendlies ahead of the showpiece tournament in Poland and Ukraine this summer.

An FA statement confirming Capello’s resignation was issued by the FA on Wednesday evening.

It read: “The Football Association can confirm that Fabio Capello has today resigned as England Manager.

“This follows a meeting involving FA Chairman David Bernstein, FA General Secretary Alex Horne and Fabio Capello at Wembley Stadium.

“The discussions focused on The FA Board’s decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello’s response through an Italian broadcast interview.

“In a meeting for over an hour, Fabio’s resignation was accepted and he will leave the post of England Manager with immediate effect.”

Spain are the current 9/4 favourites to win Euro 2012.

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Brown calls it quits

Manchester United defender Wes Brown is the second player to retire from international duty with England despite being called up for Wednesday’s friendly against Hungary (England 2/7, Hungary 8/1, draw 7/2 – 90 Minutes) at Wembley.

The 30-year-old versatile stopper joined Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson in calling time on his career with the Three Lions after the pair were given a chance to prove coach Fabio Capello wrong for leaving them out of his World Cup squad this summer.

Robinson stated that he found the role of being a number three or four goalkeeper with England ‘very frustrating’ and that was his reason for quitting.

Meanwhile, the Football Association confirmed that Brown made the journey to England’s team hotel in Watford on Sunday evening to inform Capello of his decision to retire. In a statement, Brown revealed that he wanted to step aside to allow younger players to make the step up into the squad ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifiers (England 1/12 – To Qualify).

He added: “I regard it as an honour and a privilege to have represented my country at every level from under-15s upwards. I have always been very proud to play for England and wish them well in future tournaments.”

Brown only won 23 caps for England since been called up by Kevin Keegan, ironically against Hungary, in 1999, mainly due to a myriad of injury problems. He was part of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea but he failed to feature in a single game.

Brown did feature in Capello’s first two games in charge against Switzerland and France before more injury problems sidelined him. And he did not even make the provisional 30-man squad for the summer’s World Cup in South Africa as Liverpool duo Glen Johnson and Jamie Carragher were picked ahead of him.

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