Bernstein: this was no £40m mistake by us

EURO 2012 England are once again in turmoil after Capello's decision to resign last night. The Italian felt his position had become untenable after the FA stripped John Terry of the captaincy without consulting him. Terry has been accused of r (GETTY IMAGES)

David Bernstein, the chairman of the Football Association, accepted yesterday that Fabio Capello's four-year tenure as England manager was expensive but denied it was a mistake.

The Italian was paid £6m a year to manage the national side – add in the cost of his coaching staff and the Capello era has cost the FA an estimated £40m in return for two successful qualifying campaigns and one disastrous World Cup finals two years ago. "We're never going to argue it wasn't expensive – but it wasn't a mistake," said Bernstein, who was not in charge of the FA when Capello was appointed.

Bernstein refused to give any details yesterday over whether Capello would be given a pay-off, saying it was a confidential matter. Once the FA had agreed to accept Capello's resignation, lawyers for the governing body and the Italian were called in to finalise a parting of ways

Bernstein also refused to be drawn as to whether the next manager would be paid a similar salary to Capello. He said: "Clearly there have been large amounts of money involved. We should pay a sensible amount of money for the right person but how that balances out we will have to see.

"Let me be absolutely clear: we are not going to do anything on the cheap. We will pay the proper market rate for the right person. We have to get the right person for the job."