WHATEVER happened to that old adage "what goes on in the dressing room stays in the dressing room?"

Now Fabio Capello's index rating on every one of his players will be read by billions all over the world after every game in this World Cup.

Not only that, the England manager is a partner in the company which is using that expertise to make a fortune.



How grubby can you get? It's the sort of operation which would have earned previous England bosses Sven Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren and Glenn Hoddle an absolute caning.

Since Capello took over in January of 2008, the manager has stressed the need for discipline and promoted the maxim of doing the right thing.

He wants his players to conform to rules and regulations, yet is here giving them marks out of a 100 and exploiting them for commercial gain.

What on earth is Capello thinking of - and how have the FA been caught out?

Is it that they have such trust in their £6m-a-year manager that they have taken their eye off the ball?

Even if you put aside the financial aspect, think of what the players will make of it. Former skipper John Terry was axed by Capello not because of his off-the-field indiscretions but because the attention on them was a distraction to the World Cup preparations.

This too could cause a lively storm in what should have been a smooth build-up to South Africa. There is a standing joke about what players use their laptops for when they are away for six weeks on World Cup duty.

Make no mistake, now their first priority will be to log on to The Capello Index and see how their own manager rates them.

Imagine. Capello has a go at you in the changing room after the match and two hours later there is your rating being read by team-mates and supporters alike.

How are you going to feel? Footballers get angry enough when they think they've been unfairly marked in SunSport - and they or their agents ring up to let us know about it. Now they could be publicly humiliated by their own manager. The Index will be rating all the other teams in the tournament too, so England's opponents will be able to look up exactly what Capello thinks of them and use it in team talks.

Capello didn't seem to get the implications when he spoke at the Press launch at the London Stock Exchange.

He could not see that his own stock, previously so high, was about to take a sizeable hit.

It was just 24 hours before Capello named his provisional 30 but he laughed off suggestions this was an ill-advised venture which would cause unnecessary turmoil.

"It is very interesting," said Capello, who has devised a system based on a set of criteria which he believes is the most accurate way of assessing player performance. We've been working on this for two years and have just finished. I don't think it's a problem."

Capello admitted he would use the index as a tool to evaluate his own players. "Sometimes you play well, sometimes you don't," he said. "It's good. It will be easy to speak with some players and say 'your index is no good'.

"I've also done it to help the fans for something different."

The Capello Index has been on a trial run over the last four weeks using performances by players in the Premier League's top six clubs and leading teams in La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy.

Spurs' Ledley King, who will go to the World Cup, was rated the second best player over the last month behind only Real Madrid's former Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Joe Cole, who is likely to miss out, was rated second best over the last weekend for his cameo sub appearance against Wigan behind Real's Karim Benzema.

And, among the top 10 British players from the top six clubs - which, of course, did not include the Liverpool contingent - were King, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, who has retired from international football, and three who are expected to miss out on South Africa - Michael Dawson, Sol Campbell and Gary Neville.

The FA would seem to have no choice but to insist Capello steps down from the company and change the name of the index. Yet that could cause a rift with their manager at such a crucial time.

To think Capello had made such a good impression as England boss. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.


Hypocritical garbage from the english press considering they spend the majority of their time trying to derail the english world cup squad before they've kicked a ball in SA with sensationals about their private lives!!
Also, those poor english players have a hard enough time as it is living on minimum wages and shagging everything that moves. Poor blokes shouldn't be judged in public on their performances!