England bosses who fell prey to controversies
Being England manager was the proudest moment of Sam Allardyce’s career. He threw it all away after one game because of a series of indiscretions involving undercover journalists, failing to learn from the mistakes of his predecessors.
Allardyce was filmed by undercover journalists from the Daily Telegraph newspaper offering advice to fake businessmen on how to sidestep an outlawed player transfer practice and trying to negotiate speaking engagements.
Within 24 hours of the report being published, the 61-year-old Allardyce was out of a job he held for only 67 days.
Here is a look at previous England managers who were embroiled in controversies, often involving the media:
HODGSON’S COMMENTS
A series of indiscreet but far less damaging comments were made by Roy Hodgson, Allardyce’s predecessor, to a passenger on the London Underground in 2012.
Hodgson apologised to then-Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand for saying that it “is over for him and England”. Hodgson said his mistake was “speaking to people who ask me questions rather than sitting there tight-lipped refusing to ever open my mouth”.
A year later, it was Hodgson’s attempt to tell a joke, about a monkey in space, to his players during a halftime team talk that got him in trouble. Hodgson was attempting to explain how he wanted his players to pass the ball more to winger Andros Townsend, who is black.
Hodgson survived the missteps but was fired in June after England’s poor showing at the European Championship.
HODDLE’S “KARMA”
Glenn Hoddle lost his job as England manager in 1999 after making a series of controversial comments about disabled people in a newspaper interview.
“You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains,” Hoddle was quoted as saying.
“Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. What you sow, you have to reap.”
Former Tottenham star Hoddle, who coached England at the 1998 World Cup, said his comments had been misinterpreted, but he was sacked by the FA despite eventually apologising for a “serious error of judgment”.
SVEN AND FAKE SHEIKH
England boss Sven Goran Eriksson clung onto his job in 2006 after being caught in a newspaper sting similar to the one now haunting Allardyce.
Eriksson was on an FA-sanctioned trip to Dubai when he was contacted by an undercover reporter posing as a sheikh who said he wanted to discuss a coaching job at a new football academy in the region.
The suave Swede was said to have told the reporter he would be willing to leave the England position to manage Aston Villa if the club was taken over, that England striker Michael Owen was not happy at Newcastle and that he would like to be paid as much as then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
Eriksson’s agent called the article “disgraceful entrapment” and the Swede survived to take charge at the 2006 World Cup before finally leaving the post after the tournament.
EL TEL PROBED
Terry Venables, the England manager who masterminded his team’s run to the Euro 96 semifinals, found himself embroiled in a battle to clear his name after being linked with a series of dubious deals.
Soon after being hired in 1994, Venables was told a Metropolitan and City company fraud office investigation into allegations he paid a £50,000 “bung” to then Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough to facilitate a transfer when he was in charge at Tottenham had been dropped.
He also issued a libel writ against the BBC after a Panorama documentary alleged he unlawfully raised a £1 million loan to help fund an ownership share in Tottenham on the strength of the assets of a company from which he had already resigned as a director.
Venables decided to leave the England post at the end of Euro 96 after the FA refused to grant him a contract extension leading up to the tournament.
CAPELLO’S VENTURE
Before the 2010 World Cup, Capello was at odds with England’s Football Association over a commercial online venture in which he was supposed to offer player ratings — including his own team.
The “Capello Index” was abandoned after concerns it could unsettle the squad.
Capello quit as coach in 2012 over a spat about John Terry being stripped of the England captaincy because of a racism case.