MOSCOW, November 22 (R-Sport) – Russia’s national football team manager Fabio Capello will be given sweeping powers to control the country’s national teams at all levels if he signs a new contract to take him beyond the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the head of the Russian FA has told R-Sport.
The broader mandate would allow Capello to guide the development of players through the various youth national teams and into the senior side in time for Russia’s hosting the World Cup in 2018. The Italian, 67, took charge last year and is in talks to extend his contract to 2018.
“We suggest that the head coach of the national team should set the strategy and the direction for all the national team institutions,” Russian Football Union president Nikolai Tolstykh said.
“We’ve got the 2018 World Cup coming up and the role of the head coach could be broader.”
Capello has also agreed to take up a seat on the FA’s executive committee, he added.
Tolstykh was effusive in his praise of Capello, who guided Russia to next year’s World Cup, its first in 12 years, by topping a group also containing Portugal.
“Capello is the specialist that Russian football needs,” he said, praising the Italian for his “responsibility, discipline and self-discipline.”
Under Capello, old gripes from Russia players about financial bonuses on international duty did not arise once during World Cup qualifying, something for which the FA is “grateful,” Tolstykh said.
The Russian FA has long had problems with debts, a situation somewhat relieved by a new sponsorship deal with oil giant Novatek last month, but Tolstykh admitted that the organization’s “debts have a tendency to rise.”
He added: “Good results for national teams are something that brings with it the need for extra expenses. That means training camps, competitions.” Unlike in earlier years, the FA no longer makes a loss on organizing international matches, he said.
