Capello compares football in England and Italy

Poor facilities and hooliganism stand in the way of progress in Italian football. That’s according to Fabio Capello on a return mission to his homeland yesterday. The England coach compared the Premiership and Serie A and was scathing about the latter: "Players prefer to go to England and Spain and it is not just for the money. They see Italian stadiums are half empty and realise we've got problems." More follows.

Here’s the full report on the Capello story from The Guardian. The Telegraph has slightly more detail on Capello’s views about stadia in Italy and elsewhere.

Remember when South Korea gave a few established names a nasty surprise in 2002? Well they are clearly rubbish now. How else can we interpret their latest result? This form is hardly likely to worry Group B opponents Argentina, Nigeria and Greece.

Doesn’t this man already have a job? I’d be spitting blood and teeth if I was a Republic of Ireland fan reading this.

Which top teams failed to make the World Cup finals? The Bleacher Report thinks it has the answer. Personally I think this could have been a list of 2: Egypt and Russia.

Did you think unveiling England’s new World Cup away shirt in France was a clever way to stick two fingers up at Johnny Foreigner, or just another example of how we can occasionally come across as self-obsessed? Marina Hyde thinks it was probably an own goal.