FA chief indicates next England manager will be an Englishman

Two of the last three England managers have been foreign, with Italian Fabio Capello contracted as boss until the end of the Euro 2012 finals. He succeeded Steve McClaren who took over from Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Adrian Bevington, the managing director of Club England, a new FA department with special responsibility for overseeing the national team, said the plan was to appoint an Englishman when Capello's tenure is over.

"That is the view in the discussions I have been involved in," Bevington told BBC radio. "We enjoyed working with Sven-Goran Eriksson, and we have Fabio Capello in now. I think the English team should be managed by an English manager (in the future]."

Capello took over as England manager in January 2008 after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

But after a near-perfect World Cup qualifying campaign the Italian has been strongly criticised in the English media following the side's dismal performances in South Africa - and for the way he handled the news that he no longer thought David Beckham had a part to play for England in future.

Capello revealed his decision in a television interview and said afterwards that he had not contacted the midfielder, capped 115 times, to tell him first.

"A lot of people have a very different view of Fabio Capello to the one they had before the World Cup," added Bevington.

"Our job is to support him as best we can. Maybe we can help him, and maybe now is the time to improve communications between manager and players."

Bevington also confirmed that England will play France in a friendly at Wembley Stadium on 17 November.

Capello said he would select Beckham for the match, which would serve as a farewell to his England career, but Beckham responded by saying that as he has not retired from international football, he had no intention of treating the match as his retirement party.

Eriksson yesterday revealed that he would have spoken personally to Beckham if he was to end the player's international career.

He said: "If it is somebody with 20, 30, 40, 50 caps then yes, you have to (speak to him before dropping him]. I would do it myself, I did it many times - David Seaman was one."