Capello given ultimatum of semi-finals by Euro 2012

FABIO Capello has been told England must reach the semi- finals of the next World Cup or Euro 2012 as an integral target set out by the Football Association in a wide-ranging report released yesterday.

The former Real Madrid head coach replaced Steve McClaren, who was sacked after failing to qualify for this summer's European Championships, and has already vowed to ensure English players start playing as well for their country as they do in domestic competition as part of his four-year deal with the FA. Now the Italian has been issued with a public target of the final four in the next two major finals.

But Capello insists he is optimistic he will be able to deliver the targets laid down by the FA.

"I am not under any pressure – I came here to become England manager with the view and the intent of doing things and I think we can achieve good things because we have got a good team," Capello said.

"First and foremost (we must realise] the past is past. I am confident, I have a good team and I can work on it in order to achieve the targets I have been set. I need to see what players can give me so in the France game (a 1-0 friendly defeat in Paris in March] we wanted to experiment and to test various players.

"So I have been experimenting and I will be experimenting in the next couple of games and the important thing is to get ready for the qualifying campaign."

The FA is also intending to appoint an international performance director who, although not Capello's senior, will oversee the development of all England teams below senior level.

The structure of the FA will be changed with an 'international performance group' made up of FA chairman Lord Triesman, chief executive Brian Barwick, Capello, under-21 manager Stuart Pearce, the new performance director, and the chairman of the international committee.

And Capello admitted he was party to the discussion of the performance director position with Lord Triesman and Barwick.

"This person will be in charge of researching, gathering information. Looking at the outside world – the football world in particular," Capello told Sky Sports News. "But also the sports world in order to gather the best possible information and everything we might need to help us achieve our targets.

"This was something that was thought out in a meeting with the chairman and chief executive and it is aimed at giving us the best possible means to obtain what we want."

The ambitious targets, outlined in The Vision released by the governing body, come in the wake of England's persistent failure to progress beyond quarter-finals in major tournaments, then failing to qualify at all for the European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland this year.

Under Sven-Göran Eriksson, McLaren's predecessor, England were beaten by Brazil and Portugal (twice) in the last eight of the previous three finals.

The FA is keen to put an end to this trait within the next four years, claiming in the report that England is producing "insufficient high-quality players to represent the England national teams and insufficient quality coaches."

Barwick, however, believes the target is an achievable one. "English football is looking to the FA to nurture and protect its future. There are some significant challenges, but we are confident of tackling them."

Other targets in the document include Wembley making a profit by 2012. The £800million stadium returned a loss of around £40million in its first 12 months of operation.