The Football Association has told Fabio Capello he will have to wait another two weeks to find out if he has a future as England manager.
Capello, 64, said he wanted to stay in the post despite England’s second-round World Cup exit at the hands of Germany.
But, after speaking to Club England chairman Sir Dave Richards, Capello was told he must wait for a decision.
“I said I can be the manager for the next season, but it is for him to decide,” said the Italian.
“We spoke also about the players that can play for the next qualification and I know what I have to do.”
The England team left South Africa on Monday evening and are due back in the United Kingdom in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
There were some miserable faces as they boarded the bus to the airport to depart from a desperately disappointing World Cup campaign.
However, asked if he wanted to stay in the position he has held since December 2007 on a reported salary of £6m a year, Capello replied: “Absolutely.
“I have got a contract. I refused a lot of opportunities to be a manager from a lot of important clubs because I would like to stay here. I like this job. I like being England manager.”
Capello guided England during an impressive World Cup qualifying campaign, with the team losing only once and topping their group.
But they struggled to repeat that form in South Africa, drawing their first two group games against the United States and Algeria, before qualifying for the knockout stages with a 1-0 win over Slovenia.
The 4-1 loss to the Germans was England’s heaviest defeat in any World Cup finals, leading to criticism about Capello’s selection policy, his preferred formation and questions about the players’ fitness.
England midfielder Joe Cole also said after Sunday’s game that the squad still needed to address “a lot of issues”.
But Club England managing director Adrian Bevington stated that FA officials had decided to give themselves extra time to decide on Capello’s position to avoid a “knee-jerk reaction” in the wake the defeat in Bloemfontein.
“Sir Dave Richards met with Fabio this morning and we are all very clear that Fabio is under contract with the FA until the 2012 European Championship and nothing has changed in that respect,” said Bevington.
“Obviously everybody is very disappointed today, so it makes perfect sense for us to go back to London, take stock of the situation and see what we can take from it and just speak to Fabio from there.
“I don’t think there is anything sinister in it beyond that.
“We just want to show a common-sense approach rather than making a knee-jerk reaction within 24 hours of a very disappointing result.”
Asked why the performances of the England players had not matched those at their clubs, Capello answered that he believed they were suffering from a long season and called for a winter break in England.
“I think all the English players are really tired at this competition,” he responded. “The coaches told me the physical condition of the players was not good and they did not play like the players that we know.
“I understand a lot after this tournament because the players trained very well and were focused every time but the performance was not at the level that I know.”
Capello, who has won domestic titles in Italy and Spain but was making his World Cup debut as a manager, also rejected claims his preference for a 4-4-2 formation was at fault for England’s displays.
“I think you can decide on a different style but a good style depends on the form of the players,” he reflected. “We played this style for a long time and the results were very good.
“Sometimes you can change with the game but that depends on the physical situation and not the style. The style always depends on the players in my squad.”
The disappointing World Cup exit has led to calls for an English manager to take over from Capello, with Fulham’s Roy Hodgson and Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp touted as potential successors.
But Capello was not drawn on whether he justified a £6m-a-year salary.
“When they decided to pick me to be manager I spoke with the people and they decided to give me this money,” he said. “But I think it is not about the money, it is the value of the man.”
Bevington added: “It is not Fabio who sets his salary. It is very important that we appreciate that we hired Fabio when as a nation we were on the floor.
“Fabio restored that confidence with a successful qualification campaign and we need to put that into context.”
Meanwhile, the FA has confirmed that a number of England players were robbed at their hotel in Rustenburg.
A number of unnamed players had shirts, a medal and underwear taken by members of the cleaning staff at their Royal Bafokeng base.
The goods were eventually located and returned, while five hotel workers were convicted of the thefts by a special World Cup court.
“We can confirm that some items went missing, which have thankfully been returned,” said an FA spokesman.
“The local police have dealt with the matter and, as far as we are concerned, it has been resolved.”
