Football Club

The England football team have returned to the UK after being knocked out of the World Cup by Germany.

The players looked tired as they passed through security at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport after a coach journey from their Rustenburg training base.

They touched down at Heathrow airport at about 0620 BST.

Manager Fabio Capello has been told by the Football Association that he must wait two weeks to find out whether he can stay on in the post.

David Beckham led the team off the plane, with Jamie Carragher and Michael Carrick just behind him.

Players’ wives, girlfriends and children were also among the group to emerge from the aircraft.

‘Really tired’
 
Capello told a news conference on Monday that he wanted to continue despite England’s second-round World Cup exit on Sunday.

The 4-1 defeat was England’s worst in the tournament’s history.

Capello became England manager in December 2007, and shortly before the World Cup, his contract – reportedly worth £6m a year – was extended until 2012.

But his managerial style and some of his decisions over team selection and formation were criticised following poor performances in the group stage.

Asked why the players had not lived up to the standards they reach regularly for their club sides, Capello said he believed they were “really tired”.

“The coaches told me the physical condition of the players was not good and they did not play like the players that we know,” he said.

There were rumours of a split within the England dressing room – something Capello strongly denied.

But midfielder Joe Cole said after Sunday’s game that the squad still needed to address “a lot of issues”.

Meanwhile, the FA has confirmed that a number of England players were the victims of a theft at the team’s hotel.

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, and five hotel workers were convicted of the thefts by a special World Cup court.