England Soccer Coach Puts Online Ratings Site On Hold

Heard about the “Capello Index?” Read on! Fabio Capello, the coach for England's World Cup soccer team, has temporarily shelved his venture into online gaming with a player ratings gaming branded “The Capello Index.” Earlier this week the Italian football guru revealed that he had teamed up with an online gambling company to create the "Capello Index". However, following a meeting with Football Association chiefs he decided that the project will be suspended until after England's trip to South Africa for the World Cup, Sky News reports. A spokesman for Capello confirmed the postponement, noting that: "Fabio Capello's involvement has been purely as a technical expert to establish statistical criteria for the Index. “He has not been directly involved in the on-line gaming element of the site. "However, he wants to ensure that all appropriate protocols are in place before the project proceeds and has therefore decided today to postpone it." The Capello Index is an online system designed to publicly rate players' performances. It is based on 500 different possible individual contributions to a match situation and it was planned that each player would be given a mark out of 100 just two hours after they finish each World Cup match. But following its launch at the London Stock Exchange, Capello faced a stream of criticism as concerns were raised that the system could embarrass players and have a negative effect on their performances and morale. But the 63-year-old world class coach maintained that the system was created to help his team: "I can say, 'Look, you have to improve', you have to train more' or 'What happened?'" "The index is really good. I use all of it for performance and position. But the mind of the players matters more.” He added that he believed the online game would be "good for fans" who would have been provided with detailed match analysis. Sky reports that the website has been running a trial for the last four weeks, tracking the top six clubs in England, plus three from Italy and two from Spain. Online gamblers can pay a minimum of GBP 29.99 through to a max of GBP 199.99 to play the fantasy game, although Capello is not believed to have received payment for his involvement.