England 1 Germany 4

Fabio Capello insists he has no intention of resigning from his position as England manager, but the Italian could yet have the decision taken out of his hands when he meets FA chairman Roger Burden in London next week.

Capello suffered his darkest day as England manager today when his side crashed out of the World Cup finals following a landslide defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Germany in Bloemfontein.

The humiliation, which was England’s heaviest ever World Cup defeat, led to immediate speculation over the 64-year-old’s future, even though he only signed a new two-year contract extension that was supposed to run until the end of the 2012 European Championships last month.

Capello’s handling of England’s World Cup campaign has been widely criticised for being too authoritarian, too unresponsive to the players’ needs and too tactically inflexible.

The FA cannot have been impressed with a campaign that saw England win just one of their four matches, but with the bill for the new Wembley having affected the company’s finances, it remains to be seen whether they can afford to dispense with a manager who earns around £6million a year.

The alternative, however, is to retain the services of a figure who has lost the respect of players and supporters alike.

“Resign, no? Absolutely not,” said Capello, who saw his side extend England’s record of having exited the World Cup before Germany in every tournament they have entered since 1966.

“But I have to speak in midweek when I get back to London.

“I have to speak with the chairman. I want to talk with the chairman to talk about my future. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I want to know if he has confidence in me or not.”

After yesterday’s debacle, confidence will surely be at a premium. You have to go back to the 1954 finals in Switzerland to find the last time England conceded four goals at a World Cup, but with Germany running riot, the final scoreline could have been an even greater humiliation.

As it was, first-half goals from Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski preceded a second-half brace from Thomas Mueller as the pace and movement of the German midfield proved far too much for a lethargic England defence to handle.

England’s goal came courtesy of a Matthew Upson header, but even though the final outcome was thoroughly deserved, Capello’s side could point to a dreadful refereeing decision and claim that, had things gone the other way, the result of the game could have been different.

With the score at 2-1, Frank Lampard’s first-half strike crashed against the underside of the crossbar and rebounded a full two feet over the goalline. However, with the linesman, Mauricio Espinosa, failing to flag, Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda waved play on.

It was an awful decision, and Capello was quick to identify it as the point at which England’s fate was sealed.

“We scored a goal to make it 2-1, then the most important moment in the game was the goal (that was not awarded) to make it 2-2. We scored, and it is incredible (that it was not given).

“There were five referees (including the fourth official and match commissioner) and not one of them could decide whether it was a goal. The game would have been different if that had been a goal.

“Even from the bench, I could see the ball had gone over the line.”