Allardyce sacked after just 67 days
England boss loses job after video sting ... but he’ll get £1m payoff
SHAMED England football manager Sam Allardyce quit with a £1millionplus pay-off last night after being caught trying to cash in on his dream job.
Sources said Allardyce’s severance package would ‘run into seven figures’ even though he was in charge for only 67 days and one game – the shortest-ever reign of a permanent England manager.
Despite being the best-paid manager in international football, ‘Big Sam’ was secretly filmed chasing a £400,000 deal to top up his £3million-a-year salary. Heaping shame on himself and plunging English football into yet another scandal, he was recorded advising how Far Eastern businessmen could ‘get around’ strict player transfer rules.
In the covert video, he mocked his predecessor Roy Hodgson’s speech impediment and condemned his employers at the Football Association for being obsessed with making money.
He also branded the taxman corrupt, declaring that only people with ‘s*** accountants’ pay their tax bills. Yesterday the 61-year-old was summoned to a showdown at the FA and forced to resign. In a statement, the FA said his conduct had been ‘inappropriate’, adding: ‘He accepts he made a significant error of judgment and has apologised. However, due to the serious nature of his actions, the FA and Allardyce have mutually agreed to terminate his contract with immediate effect.’
The Mail reveals today that Allardyce has no fewer than 19 company directorships – including one that appears to operate a boutique hotel in Newcastle with England goalkeeper Joe Hart and captain Wayne Rooney as fellow partners, in what may be regarded as a conflict of interest.
Allardyce’s spectacular downfall was sealed by a series of excruciating comments blurted out during two alcohol-fuelled meetings with what he thought were businessmen, but who were really undercover Daily Telegraph reporters.
He also told the complete strangers that Hodgson had no personality and that Prince William, the FA’s President, was ‘obviously’ too busy to attend a recent event while Prince Harry was ‘very naughty’.
The barrage of crass remarks was described as the most embarrassing episode for an England manager since Glenn Hoddle was sacked in 1999 for saying the disabled were paying for their sins in a previous life.
Allardyce was appointed as Hodgson’s successor after England’s humiliating Euro 2016 exit to Ice- land, with the FA hailing him as ‘a forward-thinker with progressive ideas’, and the new manager himself vowing to ‘make the people and the whole country proud.’
But the former Bolton, West Ham and Sunderland boss held his first meeting with the fake businessmen in August before he had even met the England players.
Yesterday he looked deeply troubled as he left his £500,000 house in Bolton before dawn for a grilling at the FA’s headquarters at Wembley Stadium. Later, in a grovelling statement, Allardyce said he had offered ‘a sincere and wholehearted apology for my actions’, and was ‘deeply disappointed’ to be leaving.
He said: ‘Although it was made clear during the recorded conversations that any proposed arrangements would need the FA’s full approval, I recognise I made some comments which have caused embarrassment. As part of today’s meeting, I was asked to clarify what I said and the context in which the conversations took place. I have co-operated fully in this regard. I also regret my comments with regard to other individuals.’
Last night internet jokers pointed out that Allardyce was the only England manager with a 100 per cent success record – having presided over just one game, a 1-0 win in a World Cup qualifier against Slovakia this month.
The abrupt end for Allardyce comes nine years after he was cleared by an inquiry following claims on BBC Panorama he was paid ‘bungs’ for signing certain players, allegations he denied.
He later wrote in his autobiography: ‘I vowed never again to put myself in a position where I could be accused of taking money.’ But yesterday he came spectacularly unstuck when the Telegraph released a video of him trying to cut a deal in a Mayfair hotel and a Chinese restaurant. Allardyce appears to negotiate a £400,000 deal to fly first-class to Singapore and Hong Kong as an ambassador and be a ‘keynote speaker’.
He offers advice to the ‘businessmen’ on how to ‘get around’ the FA’s rules which prevent thirdparty ownership of players – where a company or agent owns a financial stake in the footballer.
This is common in South America but was banned by the FA in 2008 and by world football’s governing body Fifa last year.
However Allardyce says: ‘You can still get around it.’ FA chief executive Martin Glenn said the discussion of potential contraventions of FA rules was ‘frankly not what is expected of an England manager’. Sources close to Allardyce said his comments were ‘ill-advised but not corrupt’, and that he planned to apologise to Hodgson.
But former captain Alan Shearer said England was now the ‘laughing stock of world football’ and fellow pundit Gary Lineker condemned Allardyce’s ‘very poor judgment’.
The Telegraph said it had passed some of its material to police. Football is braced for further corruption allegations by the paper, including claims that ten managers allegedly took transfer bribes and players placed bets on their own game.
Last night the FA said former England player Gareth Southgate would take over for the next four matches against Malta, Slovenia, Scotland and Spain ‘whilst the FA begins its search for the new England manager’.
Big sham – Back Page
‘Laughing stock of world football’