Foden sorry for his ‘error in judgment’
the team were staying, on Sunday. On a dramatic day it emerged that:
The pair were banished from the squad to return immediately to the UK and did not travel to Denmark for tonight’s game.
A member of the England staff was alerted to the breach and quickly moved to ensure neither had contact with the rest of the squad.
Manager Southgate branded the duo ‘naive’ as the FA promised a full investigation.
Both Manchester City and Manchester United publicly condemned their players’ conduct.
The FA will review their security measures after the incident. Southgate took the swift decision to remove City star Foden, 20, and United forward Greenwood, 18, from his squad before breakfast yesterday after a member of staff was alerted to images on social media seeming to confirm two girls had been in a hotel room with them. Football teams can travel relatively freely between countries without having to quarantine as part of the ‘elite sports’ protocols which were introduced by the UK Government earlier this year. But Greenwood and Foden’s move to invite the girls into the hotel has breached those rules. UEFA were immediately informed but England’s clash in Denmark is still expected to go ahead tonight. The duo were immediately told they would not take part in the final training session before tonight’s game, neither would they travel with the team to Denmark. Instead, they were instructed to stay in Iceland with a view to returning home to Manchester on the same private jet yesterday. ‘While they did not leave the team hotel, it was an unacceptable breach of our protocol,’ said the FA in a statement. ‘They have apologised for their serious lack of judgment. The FA will be launching a full investigation into the circumstances leading up to this breach.’ Icelandic police fined the duo £1,300 for the Covid-19 rule breach, which will be paid by the players and not by the FA or their clubs. Videos seen by Sportsmail show Greenwood and Foden appearing to arrange the secret meeting with a woman, said to be 20-year-old model Nadia Sif Lindal Gunnarsdottir and her 19-year-old cousin Lara Clausen, on social media. It is claimed a separate room — on a different floor from where the squad were staying in the hotel — was organised for the meeting. Southgate insisted yesterday that the girls did not enter the players’ and staff’s biosecure bubble. He did not say whether or not the pair would be punished for their behaviour, saying he would let the FA finish their investigation before making a decision. But Southgate is likely to have taken a very dim view on their antics and it remains to be seen if the incident will impact on their future selection in his squad. ‘Obviously they have been naive,’ he said. ‘I recognise their age but the whole world is dealing with a pandemic and there’s responsibility on every age group to play their part in keeping each other safe and not spreading the virus.’ Talking about their midfielder Foden, Manchester City’s statement read: ‘It is clear that Phil’s actions were totally inappropriate.’ Last night, Foden said: ‘I want to make a full apology to Gareth Southgate, to my England teammates, to the staff, supporters and to my club and my family. I made a poor decision and my behaviour didn’t meet the standards expected of me. I will learn a valuable lesson from this error in judgment.’ On Greenwood, a Manchester United spokesman said: ‘Manchester United are liaising with the FA and are disappointed with the actions of Mason over this situation.’