England manager loses job after newspaper sting
MANCHESTER, England — Even by English soccer’s standards, the latest embarrassment is a new low. Sam Allardyce was forced out in disgrace after one game in charge of the national team.
Having taken 25 years to reach the pinnacle of English soccer management, Allardyce was toppled after only 67 days by his hubris and indiscretions involving undercover journalists posing as businessmen.
The English Football Association decided Tuesday, within 24 hours of a Daily Telegraph sting being published, that the 61-year-old Allardyce lacked the integrity to hold one of the most prestigious jobs in the game.
Allardyce had a 100 per cent record — winning his only game against Slovakia this month — but will go down as the England manager with the shortest tenure.
Even before taking charge of his first game, Allardyce was inadvertently preparing the ground for his downfall with his loose talk in a London hotel in August to the reporters.
A covert video showed Allardyce appearing to offer advice to fictitious businessmen on how to sidestep an outlawed player transfer practice and also to negotiate a $519,000 US publicspeaking contract to top up an annual England salary of $4 million US.
A video showed Allardyce mocking predecessor Roy Hodgson, who was fired after England’s humiliating loss to Iceland at the European Championship in June, questioning the F.A.’s financial strategy and talking dismissively about the organization’s president, Prince William.
The F.A. acted swiftly following publication of the story, holding emergency talks with Allardyce in London before announcing the termination of his two-year contract on Tuesday evening.
“In light of the media allegations that we’ve seen,” F.A. chief executive Martin Glenn said, “we’ve concluded — and Sam’s agreed — that his behaviour has been inappropriate and frankly not what is expected of an England manager.”
And, as “guardians of the game,” Glenn insisted that the same rules and high standards of conduct had to apply to everyone in English soccer.
“That trust that people have in us to behave in the appropriate manner, is core to what any football association is about,” Glenn said. “It’s a painful decision because we thought he was a great manager, but it’s the right decision if we are to protect the integrity of the F.A.”
Now Allardyce is left to reflect on losing his dream job.
“It was a great honour for me to be appointed back in July and I am deeply disappointed,” said Allardyce. “Although it was made clear during the recorded conversations that any proposed arrangements would need the F.A.’s full approval, I recognize I made some comments which have caused embarrassment.”
England is not rushing to replace Allardyce. Gareth Southgate, the manager of England’s under-21 side, will take charge of the senior team’s next four matches — against Malta, Slovenia, Scotland and Spain — across October and November. That means there is less urgency for the F.A. to hire a new manager with the following game not until March 2017 when England hosts Lithuania in its fifth World Cup qualifier.
The Telegraph published its investigation in its Tuesday edition, under the front-page headline: “England manager for sale.”
Allardyce met people he reportedly thought were representatives of an Asian firm. In a grainy video, he is recorded as saying it was “not a problem” to circumvent F.A. rules that stop third parties from owning the economic rights of players.
In the recordings, Allardyce questioned why Prince William was absent from the launch of the branding for the Euro 2020 semifinals and final which are being staged at Wembley Stadium.
“He’s our ambassador for the Football Association, so it would have been nice if he’d have turned up but he obviously had more, much busier things on,” Allardyce said.