England boss Allardyce sacked after newspaper sting

Allardyce was accused of using his position to negotiate a 400,000 pound (460,000 euro, $517,000) deal with a football agency firm and was filmed criticizing both his predecessor Roy Hodgson, who he labeled "indecisive" and England players, who Allardayce said "couldn't cope" with the pressure at Euro 2016.

In a video captured by English newspaper The Telegraph, Allardyce told the undercover reporters, posing as representatives of a firm based in the Far East, that it was "not a problem" to bypass rules enforced by his employers that ban companies or individuals from owning a financial stake in a footballer and thus profiting from transfers or new contracts.

The FA said in a statement Allardyce's conduct had been "inappropriate" of an England manager and he had accepted making "an error of judgment" and had apologized.

Serious nature

"However, due to the serious nature of his actions, The FA and Allardyce have mutually agreed to terminate his contract with immediate effect," the statement said.

Gareth Southgate, the current Under-21 coach, would take charge for the next four games against Malta, Slovenia, Scotland and Spain while the FA begins the search for a permanent replacement.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn said it had been a "very difficult 24 hours".

"In the light of the media allegations that we have seen we have concluded and Sam has agreed that his behavior has been inappropriate and frankly not what is expected of an England manager," he said.

"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."

A former West Ham United manager, Allardyce said he was aware of agents who bypassed the transfer rules "all the time" and said: “You can still get around it. I mean obviously the big money’s here.”

Allardyce, who attended the meeting with his agent, Mark Curtis, and his financial adviser, Shane Moloney on July 22, before he'd taken charge of his first England match, talked about his signing of Ecuadorian Enner Valencia for West Ham from Mexican club Pachuca in 2014.

“It’s not a problem… we got Valencia in. He was third party owned when we bought him from Mexico,” Allardyce said. Mr. Moloney made it clear that the ownership arrangement ended when the player moved to England.

The 61-year-old, whose salary was about 3 million pounds (3.45 million euros, $3.89 million) per year, also agreed to visit Singapore and Hong Kong as an ambassador for the phoney agency with a 400,000 pound deal negotiated for the role. He went as far as to discuss dates for travelling to Singapore in a second meeting with the men in a Manchester restaurant.

However, throughout the recordings, Allardayce repeatedly made it clear that any agreements would have to be cleared by his bosses at the FA. "I'll have to run it by the powers that be," he said.     

Not a first for an England boss

In echoes of a News of the World sting in 2006 that saw then-England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson make ill-advised comments about David Beckham and Michael Owen, Allardyce also let slip his feelings on some prominent figures in the English game.

He referred to Hodgson, who resigned after Euro 2016, as 'Woy', making light of his predecessor's speech impediment and called him “too indecisive” during England’s shock European Championship defeat to Iceland. He also said Hodgson's assistant Gary Neville was “the wrong influence” and should have been told to “sit down and shut up”.

The sting was part of a 10-month Telegraph investigation on bribery and corruption in British football and it isn't the first time Allardyce's name has come up in media investigations.

In 2006, he was implicated in a report by BBC program Panorama which alleged Allardyce took "bungs." He denied the claims and an independent investigation found no evidence of irregular payments.

mp/dv (Reuters/AP)