The Football Association will end up with "egg on their face" if the decide to sack Fabio Capello, players' chief Gordon Taylor claimed today.
Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association and a member of the FA's international committee, has called for a "committee of inquiry" to be set up to look at the crisis in English football.
He says the FA's decision to remove the break clause in Capello's contract just before the World Cup means they will end up looking ridiculous if they now terminate his contract, which runs until 2012.
Taylor said: "If they sack him they will be left with egg on their face.
"It seems ridiculous to do this contract negotiation just before the World Cup and then to now be talking about sacking him.
"The Capello question is not the nettle we should be grasping. Fabio has been brought in to deal with the top of the pyramid, it's the base up to the top that needs attention.
"We need a committee of inquiry with all segments of English football taking responsibility - and acting on the recommendations when they are made.
"There is a crisis and it has to involve all the stakeholders."
Meanwhile, Capello received further backing today when FA board member David Sheepshanks indicated he believes the Italian should stay on in the job.
Sheepshanks, the former Ipswich chairman, told BBC Radio Suffolk: "Knee-jerk reactions never work.
"There are some very, very able and wise people around the FA board table and I have absolute confidence that they will come up with the right decision.
"Let's get this right. Fabio is tremendously able - one of the world's best managers - and a month ago I don't think you'd have heard many people disagree with that. He doesn't become a bad manager overnight."
