"I think we got caught up in all the hype. We became celebrities in terms of the WAG (wives and girlfriends) situation," said Ferdinand ahead of Wednesday's World Cup qualifier with Belarus.

"There was a big show around the England squad.

"It was like a theatre unfolding and football became a secondary element to the main event. We were caught in the bubble ourselves."

The Manchester United center-half admitted that England's camp in the 2006 World Cup, where Sven-Goran Eriksson was in charge, was more like a circus.

"In Baden-Baden, there were paparazzi everywhere, our families were there. When you step back it was like a circus," Ferdinand added.

Very Professional

Ferdinand, who will captain the Three Lions on Wednesday, heaped praise upon the new approach deployed by Capello.

"This is a very, very professional regime. Very result-orientated, very much like a lot of our clubs. The results come a long way before the performances," he said.

"You see how he (Capello) is on the training ground, in our meetings, that there's a winning mentality there.

"This regime is very watertight. We have to take everything we can from the manager because of his vast experience.

"If we can do that, England will go in the right direction.

"I don't want to speak too soon, but you can see that we're at the start of something and, hopefully, there will be bigger rewards than we have had in the past."

England have maximum points in Group 6, following victories over Croatia, Andorra and Kazakhstan.