The England squad will prepare for next summer’s European Championships by spending a week in Marbella.

Drawing strength: England manager Fabio Capello (right), with France coach Laurent Blanc, in Ukraine for the European Championship draw on Friday

Fabio Capello, who is determined that England’s campaign at Euro 2012, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, will be more relaxed than their miserable experience at last year’s World Cup in South Africa, has booked his team into the pre-tournament training camp on the Costa del Sol.

They will spend up to six days from May 21 at the Marbella Paradise of Football and Sports complex, a facility of four full-sized pitches used by several English clubs in recent seasons.

Capello’s team, who went to Austria before the last World Cup, will be close to thousands of British holidaymakers and within a short car journey of Linekers, a nightclub named after England’s second most prolific goalscorer. “We will go to
Marbella for five or six days. It’s very nice,” said Capello, speaking after Friday’s draw for the finals, which pitted England against France, Sweden and Ukraine.

The Football Association will discover on Thursday whether their proposed friendly against Ireland in Dublin can go ahead in the week before the tournament. Uefa rules prevent Euro 2012 finalists playing each other within a month of the opening game, but Ireland are among a number of countries who have asked for the rule to be relaxed.

Uefa’s executive committee will discuss the issue at a meeting in Venice before deciding whether England and Ireland can meet for the first time since 1995, when a riot started by England fans caused a cancellation.

England supporters planning to travel to Euro 2012 have been warned of major transport challenges and a severe shortage of hotel rooms in Ukraine. England will play two of their Group D games in Donetsk and the other in Kiev. The former has a fraction of the hotel rooms required even to host just the official FA ticket allocation of 8,000.

Internal flights are limited, while travelling by road or rail between Kiev and Donetsk is likely to take eight hours. Fans in Donetsk may have to use campsites and student accommodation.