Prescott wades into England World Cup row
By Alex Stevenson and Ian Dunt
John Prescott has waded into the row surrounding England’s inglorious exit from the World Cup with a barbed attack on Sky News and demands that coach Fabio Capello retains his position.
The former deputy prime minister made the remarks on Twitter as the England squad prepared to fly home to serious questions about their lacklustre performance.
“Hope Capello stays,” Mr Prescott tweeted. “Cost millions to pay him off and he now has major tournament experience. Let him sort England out.”
A few minutes later, he added: “We really shouldn’t let the Murdoch press force out Capello when it was Murdoch’s Sky money that vastly inflated players salaries.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street confirmed that the national flag was no longer flying from above Downing Street.
David Cameron sought a desperate sliver of consolation yesterday when he expressed happiness at the fact the match had not ended in penalties, as England-Germany World Cup encounters often do.
But the 4-1 loss left England supporters with little to be happy about, as a poor performance saw the team suffer its worst defeat in the history of the World Cup.
Even a wrongly disallowed goal by Frank Lampard failed to provide much of a justification, with the Germans eventually scoring a categorical win over their opponents.
The prime minster took time out from the G20 summit in Canada to watch the match with his German counterpart Angela Merkel yesterday.
Footage showing the leaders watching the last-16 match revealed the prime minister was more visibly animated than Ms Merkel, who was restricted to waving her hands around whenever the ball neared the goal.
“The country will wonder ‘what if’ after Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal but it was a disappointing result,” Mr Cameron said afterwards.
“At least we were all spared the agony of penalties.”
Speaking to reporters afterwards, the prime minister trod carefully around the disallowed goal which should have seen England equalise late in the first half.
“I do think that the use of technology in sport can be a bonus,” Mr Cameron said.
“I’m a keen follower of cricket and tennis and I think the third umpire has been a great thing and the machines that bleep at Wimbledon are quite handy too.
“Maybe that’s something that football could now have a look at.”
It is possible the prime minister got more out of the World Cup than many England fans, having used it to diplomatic advantage with US president Barack Obama.
The pair made a “light-hearted” bet on the result of the England-USA game, which was drawn 1-1. Mr Obama and Mr Cameron exchanged bottles of beer after Saturday’s G8 summit to resolve their flutter.
