Russian FA can’t afford to ‘pay Capello’

National football team coach Fabio Capello has not been paid for five months, according to media reports.

Capello extended his contract in January to take him through the 2018 World Cup [AP]

Russia’s FA does not have enough money to pay national team manager Fabio Capello, according to Sergey Stepashin who is a member of the governing body’s executive committee.

Former England manager Capello has not been paid for the last five months according to Russian media reports.

The experienced Italian, who has also coached Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and AS Roma, took over as Russia manager in 2012 and steered the country to their first World Cup in 12 years when they qualified for Brazil 2014.

However, they had a disappointing campaign, finishing behind Belgium and Algeria with two points from three games and failing to qualify for the knockout stages.

“I can say for a fact that the Russian Football Union simply does not have enough money to pay Capello’s salary,” the news agency Interfax on Wednesday quoted Stepashin as saying.

“It is not something to be proud of when we can’t pay Russia’s head coach what he is owed. However, when we signed a contract with him, we should have thought about which financial sources would pay his wages. Today we need to find these financial benefactors.”

Capello, 68, extended his contract in January to take him through to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

According to Russian media, Capello’s new contract is worth $11.22m per year.

Source: Reuters