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• Three men gained access to accredited area of team hotel
• Attempt made to get John Terry to apologise to Wayne Bridge

A group of notorious pranksters infiltrated the England team hotel last week, it is reported today. The news will cause further concern at the Football Association as the security breach occurred in the same week that – in a separate incident – England players’ and coaches’ conversations were bugged.

Tommy Dunn and his son, also named Tommy, were, according to the Daily Mail, among three men who attempted to persuade John Terry to sign an autograph with the words ‘to Wayne … sorry’ in reference to the former England captain’s alleged affair with Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend – and also gained access to an accredited area of the hotel.

The FA has been informed and will investigate. The Dunns have performed stunts in the past with Karl Power, who joined in Manchester United’s team photograph before a Champions League match against Bayern Munich.

Dunn Jr’s biggest claim to fame is playing Power at Wimbledon before a Tim Henman match in 2002.

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Fabio Capello insisted he is still happy dealing with the most important challenge of his life, despite the latest scandal to hit the England team.

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Fabio Capello insisted he is still happy dealing with the most important challenge of his life, despite the latest scandal to hit the England team.

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Why the bugging affair should be the least of the FA’s worries in the lead-up to the World Cup

Behind closed doors, you can’t imagine. Behind closed doors, is where it happens. That’s where the truth is. That’s where the life is.

Not my words, or indeed those of covertly bugged England general Fabio Capello, but the words of music’s Peter Andre – a man who scarcely even regarded the conception of his children as a something on which it might be seemly to close the doors, preferring to invite TV cameras to document every minute of his tediously “insane” life.

That Peter’s adventures are marginally more predictable than a fake-tanned episode of Mr Benn doesn’t matter to those who continue to watch in their droves. The desire to be let in on something – however illusory – is insatiable for some sections of the public, many of whom then cheerfully blamed the media for Peter’s divorce in the same way as they will blame them for gossiping away the World Cup. Indeed, for some, this ovine voyeurism has become such a normal part of culture that it hardly seems odd that the England camp was apparently bugged by a “member of the public” – shall we call them a citizen journalist? – in the run-up to last week’s Egypt game. Yes, I’m afraid the great “how to go out in the quarter-finals” battle plan may now be dangerously compromised, and Jerry’s probably going to steal all our tactics. But try to keep calm and carry on.

The last football spy drama I can recall was that tale three years ago about a Cessna making flights over Manchester United’s Carrington training ground. “It remained unclear who authorised the filming,” panted the Mirror back then, “and whether the material is destined for this country or abroad. The covert clips of players such as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo working on tactics, formation, free-kicks and penalties during the astonishing spying mission could be invaluable to rival clubs.” Could be. But almost certainly weren’t.

This time, the spy stuff is rather less lofty, with reports suggesting that though the six-hour recording may feature discussions about “World Cup tactics”, it’s more notable – and presumably more sellable – for chitchat about win bonuses and some joking about sex scandals. Inevitably, it has been speculatively talked up as “dynamite”, but I bet it’s dynamite only in the sense that anything a footballer or manager says is deemed explosively interesting, despite all evidence to the contrary (yet again we must draw a parallel with Peter Andre).

Quite rightly, the FA’s lawyers have pointed out that the recording constitutes a total breach of privacy, but in the internet age the fear will be that despite newspapers’ refusal to publish, the transcript or portions of it will be posted online. There’s a reasonable chance that within a fortnight we’ll be faced with a John Terry-type situation, where feverish internet chatter effectively rendered the player’ssuper-injunction defunct even before it was lifted.

Doubtless, then, the FA is already considering its media strategy if the tape’s contents become public. Might I suggest an official line of “Get over it”?

Unfortunately, because the FA is such a serially useless governing body, no one at the top has ever been in a strong enough position to affect an air of amused sang froid about these regular teacup storms. As long as it wasn’t you in the schtuck, it probably felt rather a relief to “firefight” the latest rumours about Sven’s love life instead of defending your staggeringly incompetent mismanagement of, say, the Wembley Stadium project.

But sooner or later someone in public life is going to have to offer the “Get over it” response to an overexcited media and its consumers. The policy of attempting to appease people who wish only for heads to roll seems increasingly pointless.

Frankly, if whatever is on the tape needs putting into perspective, people should recall the time the England set-up willingly invited a fly on to their wall. They should recall Graham Taylor, several fathoms out of his depth, turning to his nodding dog Phil Neal and hazarding: “We’ll put Wrighty on, shall we?” Watching the pair gibberingly agree that it was “made for Wrighty”, they should recall the horrifying realisation that Taylor had been several times less competent even than he had looked. Quite an achievement.

That, my ducks, is a real exposé. Never mind what off-guard jokes were made at the England camp, and never mind even if the answer to the question “what’s my motivation?” is “two million quid and half a point on the image rights”. No matter what happened at Capello’s headquarters last week, nothing, but nothing, could ever be as sensationally damning.

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Fabio Capello says he wants England to reach “the semi-finals – minimum” at this summer’s World Cup. Is this a realistic target?

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• Rooney is one of the three best players in the world, Italian says
• I would not swap my job with Marcello Lippi, he adds

Fabio Capello has set the bold target of steering England to the semi-finals of the World Cup at the very least, thereby emulating the national team’s best performance at the tournament since the trophy was won in 1966.

The Italian has had to contend over the past month with injuries to key personnel and serious allegations over his players’ personal lives – one of them cost John Terry the captaincy – together with confirmation that the England team hotel had been bugged before last week’s friendly against Egypt. Yet those distractions have not doused his enthusiasm for a role he accepted a little over two years ago, with his basic target now to take the team beyond the quarter-finals, where Sven-Goran Eriksson twice came unstuck, in South Africa this summer.

“My job when I was manager of Milan, Juventus, Roma or Madrid was always to try and win and, for me, it’s the same now as England manager,” said Capello. “I am focused to find the best way and we are one of the best teams in the World Cup. We hope to arrive at the semi-finals, minimum, and then, after a lot of years, win the World Cup.

“We have a good team, good players and, at this moment, we think we can beat all of the teams because we can play at the same level of the best teams in the world. It is a surprise to see the attention on things off the pitch because, usually, my job has been to decide things on the pitch, so that is new. But being England manager is always a challenge. But the challenge for me is always important because, at my age, without a challenge, I’d just stay at home. I could go on holiday. I like the challenge. This will be one of the most important of my life.

“To manage England was one of my dreams and I’m really happy to have taken on the job. I would not swap my position with [the Italy coach] Marcello Lippi. I prefer to be England manager. I hope to play against Italy in the final but my shirt at that moment will be an England shirt.”

England have reached the semi-finals only once, in 1990, in the past 44 years, and Capello’s ambition is a concession that the Football Association and the supporters will be seeking evidence of real progress under a manager who signed a four-year contract worth around £26m.

A place in the last four at the summer’s finals would satisfy that with Capello admitting that Wayne Rooney – arguably the side’s one world-class player on present form – is key to achieving that much.

“Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney are the three best players in the world at the moment,” said Capello, speaking at the Laureus Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi. “Their styles are completely different. One is fast, one has lots of imagination. Rooney is more strong. He runs a lot and helps everyone, and this year he has scored many goals. I think he is one of the best, but those three are really young and they are the best players for the future. I hope he will be in the same form during the World Cup and that he will be fit and not injured because he is one of the most important players.

“Of those who are injured at the moment, I am happy because they are injured now rather than when the World Cup starts. Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole are out but the players who played against Egypt played very well and we have no big problem with defenders.”

Ferdinand has returned to the Manchester United line-up since the win against Egypt, and Brown is expected to be absent for up to six weeks with a metatarsal injury. Cole continues to make good progress in rehabilitation in the south of France after breaking an ankle during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Everton, with the club confident he will return to action before the end of the campaign.

That will grant the first-choice left-back time to prove his fitness ahead of the naming of Capello’s 30-man provisional squad for the finals, on 16 May.

England have two fixtures, against Mexico at Wembley and Japan in Graz, Austria, later that month before flying to South Africa on 2 June.

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Fabio Capello insisted he is still happy dealing with the most important challenge of his life, despite the latest scandal to hit the England team.

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England manager Fabio Capello has set his team a minimum target of reaching the World Cup semi-finals in South Africa this year.

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• Italian believes side are strong enough to reach final four
• Would like to face his countrymen in the final

Fabio Capello has set England a minimum target of reaching the World Cup semi-finals in South Africa later this year. Capello, whose team have been drawn with the United States, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C at the finals starting on 11 June, said England were one of the leading sides at the tournament.

“I hope the semi-finals is a minimum,” said the Italian today. “We have good players, and we think we can beat all teams because we play at the same level of all the best teams in the world.”

Capello, who is currently at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi, further believes England can reach the later stages of the World Cup because in Wayne Rooney they will, barring injury, have one of the most in-form players around.

“[Lionel] Messi, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Wayne] Rooney are the three best players in the world. Rooney has scored a lot of goals,” he said. The Manchester United forward has already scored 28 goals for his club this season.

Should England make it to the semi-finals in South Africa, Capello hopes they will then progress to a final meeting with the country of his birth. “I hope to play against Italy in the final but my shirt at that moment will be an England shirt,” he said.

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England manager Fabio Capello has set his team a minimum target of reaching the World Cup semi-finals in South Africa this year.

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