World’s highest-paid international manager, Sam Allardyce, has resigned his dream job as coach of England, after irreconcilable talks with English FA over an allegation that he agreed a payment of 400,000 pounds in exchange for information on how to beat transfer rules.
He was appointed into the three million pounds job on July 22 to succeed Roy Hodgson.
He quit just after 67 days.
The English FA confirmed his departure, from a job that offered three million pounds a year, making him the highest paid national coach.
In a statement, the FA said: ‘The FA can confirm that Sam Allardyce has left his position as England manager.
‘Allardyce’s conduct, as reported today, was inappropriate of the England manager. He accepts he made a significant error of judgement 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.
“This is not a decision that was taken lightly but the FA’s priority is to protect the wider interests of the game and maintain the highest standards of conduct in football.
“The manager of the England men’s senior team is a position which must demonstrate strong leadership and show respect for the integrity of the game at all times.
‘Gareth Southgate will take charge of the men’s senior team for the next four matches against Malta, Slovenia, Scotland and Spain whilst the FA begins its search for the new England manager.
‘The FA wishes Sam well in the future.”
In a statement released moments later, Sam Allardyce’s says he is ‘deeply disappointed’ to be leaving his job as England manager.
‘Further to recent events, The FA and I have mutually agreed to part company.
‘It was a great honour for me to be appointed back in July and I am deeply disappointed at this outcome.
‘This afternoon, I met with Greg Clarke and Martin Glenn and offered a sincere and wholehearted apology for my actions.
‘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”
English CEO, Martin Glenn, said: ‘A very difficult 24 hours. In the light of the media allegations that we’ve seen, we’ve concluded and Sam’s agreed that his behaviour’s been inappropriate and frankly not what is expected of an England manager, discussing a range of issues from potential contraventions of FA rules through to personal comments that frankly just don’t work when you’re the manager of England.”
Sam Allardyce lost his England job after he was filmed in an undercover investigation giving advice on how to bend the country’s FA rules on transfer of players.
The man fondly called Big Sam was filmed using his new position as England manager to negotiate a £400,000 deal with fake businessmen and offer them advice about how to get around Football Association transfer rules on transfers relating to the complicated third party ownership of foreign players.
The businessmen were in fact from a fictitious Far East firm cast in a sting by Daily Telegraph.
The coach, said to be the best paid national coach in the world, also said several unpleasant things for which he was invited to face questioning by his employers, the English FA.
In the film, Allardyce mocks his predecessor, Roy Hodgson’s speech — calling him ‘Woy’.
He also says Hodgson would ‘send people to sleep,’ as an after dinner speaker, adding that ‘he hasn’t got the personality for it,’.
He says that Hodgson ‘just collapsed’ as England manager and that the players had ‘let him down’.
Allardyce blames former England No 2 Neville for the failure to send on Marcus Rashford earlier as England crashed out to Iceland at Euro 2016 and accused him of being ‘the wrong mix’.
Allardyce claims the FA had ‘stupidly’ rebuilt Wembley for £870million. He also says of his employers: ‘They’re all about making money aren’t they? You know the FA’s the richest football association in the world? Well, I shouldn’t say that. They’re not the richest at all. What they do is they have the biggest turnover in the world with £325m.’
Allardyce, former coach of Sunderland, West Ham and Bolton Wanderers earns £3m-a-year plus bonuses according to the terms of his two-year contract, with a further two-year option.
