Hodgson thrives on winter break!
ENGLAND manager Roy Hodgson is in the fortunate position of seemingly shoring up his job during the four-month break in international football.
FA chief executive Martin Glenn would have the main responsibility choosing the next manager with chairman Greg Dyke leaving in July. And he has been even more glowing this week about Hodgson than he was at the European Championship draw in Paris last December.
It certainly points to Hodgson — very lucky not to be sacked after the World Cup debacle in Brazil — staying in charge of the national team until the next World Cup in Russia in 2018, provided his England side at least reach the quarter-finals in France.
Glenn said after a Kick It Out function: ‘I think Roy is by far and away the best guy for the job. We put the issue of his contract to bed, saying it’s got to be performance-related and that’s not an issue.
‘My view is “how do we raise the chances of us being successful?” and I think he’s the guy to do it. We’ve qualified very well, he’s developed a young team which I think is really encouraging and it’s been his team. What’s there not to like?’ THE Kick It Out fundraising dinner at Chelsea was shamelessly hijacked by Labour MP Chuka Umunna for a party political rant when invited on stage by chairman Lord Ouseley. Umunna slammed the media for being ‘irresponsible’ in the way they cover diversity issues. Yet Umunna made no reference to how the football Press regularly expose discriminatory behaviour in the sport. Umunna showed he was clueless about football — referring to Football League chairman Greg Clarke as the FA chairman. Meanwhile, only BBC’s bumbling interviewer Garth Crooks (above) could describe out-ofwork football manager Chris Powell during the Q&A session as ‘living the dream’. FIFA’S ethics committee banned disgraced secretary-general Jerome Valcke for 12 years for various misdemeanours including World Cup tickets and expenses abuses. This might help explain how Valcke could have bought property in London, Paris, Zurich and Corsica, berthed his yacht on Sardinia’s Emerald Coast and continued a millionaire lifestyle despite an expensive divorce. IF the South Sudan vote is anything to go by, no one should believe a word anyone says before the secret ballot to decide the next FIFA president in Zurich. First, South Sudan came out in support of Gianni Infantino, only then to announce publicly they are backing Sheik Salman. Privately, however, they are saying Infantino still has their vote.