• England manager will demand squad behave as adults
• Football Association document compiled with input from RFU
Roy Hodgson will outline a standard of behaviour off the field of play he expects from his squad in stark terms before they travel to their city-centre base in Poland for the European Championship.
The England manager will do so with the help of a Football Association document compiled with input from the Rugby Football Union and drawing on the experience of the national team's troubled World Cup campaign in New Zealand last autumn, which was significantly undermined by an incident at a dwarf-themed bar night and other disciplinary issues.
While not seeking to replicate the austere atmosphere of the Fabio Capello era and emphasising players would be treated "like adults", Hodgson said they should exercise common sense. "I don't believe that imprisoning people is the way of getting the best out of them. And I also believe that treating people like adults is the best way of getting a working relationship going. We're not at school, we're footballers," he said. "My message is a very simple one: 'Not only do I expect you to behave as adults, I'm going to demand you behave as adults. And I'm going to demand also that if you're in a public place and you do anything you shouldn't, you're not letting yourself down, you're letting us all down because the criticism will pile upon us all.'"
The 23-man squad, who will be based in Krakow, will not be given a list of rules, but Hodgson is likely to address them on the subject based on a briefing compiled by Club England's managing director, Adrian Bevington, and understood to include input from the RFU and others.
"These are people with an incredible public profile, they know that every time they take a step out of the door, the eyes of the world are on them. There are cameras everywhere, they are fully aware of their responsibilities," Hodgson said. "But I won't hesitate to point them out. Adrian has put together a document that we'll take up with them. Particularly in light of what happened with the England rugby team, we don't want a repeat of any of those type of things."
Shortly after his appointment, the FA's chairman, David Bernstein, decided that the monastic experience of South Africa will not be repeated and that in future England players would be "good tourists", staying more centrally and engaging with fans and their hosts as the Holland team did with notable success in Johannesburg at the World Cup.
The choice of Krakow's Hotel Stary is designed to provide a balance between the Wags circus that Sven-Goran Eriksson's Baden-Baden camp became in 2006 and the austere surroundings of Capello's Rustenburg regime in 2010 that dispirited many in the squad.
Hodgson, who led Switzerland to the World Cup finals, said he had experienced both extremes of international tournament football and far preferred a city centre location. "It wasn't my decision to go to Krakow. But if I was asked whether I'd like an isolated camp or one where there's contact, people can have a cup of coffee, see something else other than their roommate and the coaching staff, I'd take that any day," he said. "The Swedes have done that for years. We'll trust them that they've got to behave like proper people. I hope it will go well and if it doesn't, we'll learn another lesson."
There was a large degree of frustration among the England squad in South Africa at the long days with little to do. But Hodgson said that, while the city centre location would help, coping with boredom was a fact of life in tournament football. "I know how it feels, I know how difficult it is to fill the days. I know it is a situation that needs to be looked at. But there is no answer to it – that's what tournament football is," he said.
"When you sign up for it, you work on the basis that for the next four weeks it's going to be football, football, football. You will be a bit isolated, there's only going to be a limited amount of training time and a lot of free time during the day." Read More
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