Clarke quiz over £1m Sam pay-off

FA chairman Greg Clarke is going to face questions tomorrow about the £1million payout to former England manager Sam Allardyce, who resigned after only 67 days.

Clarke patted himself on the back both in his speech in the Wembley Suite before Saturday’s Malta game and in the match programme about the ‘swift, decisive and entirely appropriate’ way he and his colleagues reacted to Allardyce’s loose talk to undercover reporters about evading FA regulations on third-party ownership.

But a number of FA councillors, while supporting Clarke over Allardyce’s departure, were talking openly at England’s World Cup qualifier about their annoyance at the size of Allardyce’s settlement, given that he lasted less than 10 weeks in the job. The FA Council meeting this week gives the disgruntled blazers the perfect opportunity to quiz their new chairman about the seven-figure severance package.

Allardyce’s tenure would have been only 63 days had FA betting partner Ladbrokes had their way. Ladbrokes, who took over from William Hill in the summer, requested his appointment be delayed so the publicity pictures could be taken with their backboard rather than William Hill’s. Ladbrokes, interestingly, don’t believe it is appropriate for them, in their official capacity, to have a betting market on the next permanent England boss.

Meanwhile, that England sponsors’ backboard is looking increasingly cluttered, with Ladbrokes, Vauxhall plus their GetIN hashtag, Nike, Marks & Spencer, Mars and newcomers Lidl all having to be accommodated. IRRITANT

football pundit Stan Collymore has been active on Twitter boasting about berating your Sports Agenda columnist in front of 15 colleagues ‘for transparency’ reasons in the Wembley press room about Saturday’s item on his acrimonious departure from talkSPORT. This is the same Collymore who blocks his critics — including myself and a number of talkSPORT staff — from reading his tweets. THERE seems to be a potential conflict of interest in the Jockey Club’s appointment of race commentator Richard Hoiles to the Wincanton board and the expected selection of racing presenter Alice Plunkett (right) to a similar position at Cheltenham. Both are part of the new ITV team. Clare Balding has also joined the Epsom board but her personal involvement in TV racing ends at Ascot on Saturday. THE

busy DCMS select committee have called FA chairman Greg Clarke to be questioned on football corruption and governance issues. This is the umpteenth time the FA have faced questioning that never seems to lead anywhere apart from giving politicians like rent-a-quote interim chairman Damian Collins a publicity platform. And Clarke has only been FA chairman for a couple of months.