Fabio Capello 'May Have Breached His Contract' Claims David Davies

The former executive director of the Football Association, David Davies, believes Fabio Capello may have breached his contract by publicly criticising the FA's decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy.

On Sunday night, Capello gave an interview to an Italian television station during which he admitted he "completely disagree with the FA about the John Terry decision" and added that he thought the Chelsea stalwart should "keep the captain's armband".

Having aired his viewpoint so publicly, which would appear to undermine the decision made by his employers on Friday, Davies believes the Italian may now find himself at loggerheads with the FA and indeed more seriously in breach of his contract.

"My understanding - and I've talked to one or two very senior people at the FA in the last 24 hours - is that this matter with Capello is regarded very seriously," Davies told the BBC. "He may well have breached his contract.

"There is collective responsibility and there is a view that publicly this sort of matter shouldn't be aired in this sort of way. It will be for others to know the fine print of Capello's contract and I suspect people will look at it."

Davies left the FA a year and half prior to Capello's arrival in 2008 and the former executive director believes the organisation is unlikely to allow the England manager's action to go unpunished in some capacity; intimating football's governing body in this country is thriving under strong leadership.

"There is strong leadership now at the FA from [chairman] David Bernstein." He continued. "Last week he wasn't slow to take things forward and he may not be slow to do so now."

Davies believes Capello may be endeavouring to prevent Terry from retiring from international football altogether. The Chelsea star is the first England footballer to be stripped of the armband twice and there has been a suggestion the FA's decision, which Capello had no part in, may hasten the 31-year-old's retirement.

He added: "You have to ask what his motive is,

"You have to suspect he wants to prevent John Terry retiring as a player before Euro 2012 but there are wider issues.

"You could have what some of the media are calling a morality circus while England are trying to win the second major tournament in football."