Sam Allardyce’s dream job has turned to dust after just 67 days.
The Football Association fired Allardyce from his role as manager of England’s national soccer team Tuesday over scandalous comments he made to reporters, whom he believed were businessmen from the Far East.
The FA announced its decision to part ways with Allardyce in a statement.
The Daily Telegraph revealed videotaped conversations Monday in which Allardyce expresses a willingness to help agents and investors skirt FA rules on transfers and player ownership. Allardyce also mocked his England predecessor, Roy Hodgson, and his ex-assistant coach, Gary Neville.
Allardyce believed he was talking to representatives of an Asian firm willing to pay him £400,000 ($520,000) to deliver keynote addresses at corporate events. But doing so might have represented a conflict of interest between England’s national team and players whom the fictional firm might represent.
The Telegraph interviewed and subsequently exposed Allardyce as part of an ongoing investigation into bribery in English football.
Gareth Southgate, the current coach of England’s U-21 team, will manage the senior team for its next four games. The Three Lions play 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Malta (on Oct. 8), Slovenia (Oct. 11) and Scotland (Nov. 11) and an exhibition game against Spain (on Nov. 15) in the coming weeks.
The FA will search for a full-time manager to replace Allardyce, whom it hired in July following England’s Euro 2016 disaster.
And so ends the tenure of “Big Sam,” who waited 10 years to land his dream job as England manager, only to lose it after only one game. Allardyce’s tenure with England is the shortest of any full-time Three Lions manager to date.
Thumbnail photo via Photo via YouTube/FATV
