Five controversies that rocked English football
After an undercover reporter caught England manager Sam Allardyce offering his services to help investors break FA regulations, we look back at five other high-profile scandals that shook the English game.
Following the revelation that England manager Sam Allardyce offered his services to wealthy investors looking to circumvent FA regulations on third-party ownership, we take a journey back in time to explore some of the other big controversies to have affected the English national team.
Hoddle's 'sins in a previous life'
Glenn Hoddle lost his job as England manager in 1999 after making a series of controversial comments about disabled people in a newspaper interview.
Hoddle was quoted as saying that “You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. What you sow, you have to reap.”
The former Monaco and Tottenham star, who coached England at the 1998 World Cup, said his comments had been misinterpreted but was sacked by the FA despite eventually apologising for what he terned a “serious error of judgment.”
Sven and the Fake Sheikh
Sven Goran Eriksson clung onto his job in 2006 after being caught in a newspaper sting similar to the one now haunting Sam Allardyce.
The Swede was on an FA-sanctioned trip to the Middle East when he was contacted by an undercover reporter posing as a sheikh who said he wanted to discuss a coaching job at a new football academy set up in the region.
Eriksson was said to have told the reporter he would be willing to leave the England position to manage Aston Villa if the club was taken over, that England striker Michael Owen was not happy at Newcastle and that he would like to be paid as much as then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
Eriksson's agent branded the article a case of “disgraceful entrapment” and the Swede held on to take charge at the 2006 World Cup after which he finally stood down.
El Tel probed
Terry Venables, the England manager who masterminded England’s iconic run to the Euro 96 semi-finals on home soil, found himself embroiled in a battle to clear his name after being linked with a series of dubious business deals.
Soon after being hired in 1994, Venables was told that a fraud office investigation into allegations he paid a £50,000 'bung' to then Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough to facilitate a transfer when he was in charge at Tottenham had been dropped.
He also issued a libel writ against the BBC after it released a documentary alleging he unlawfully raised a £1 million loan to help fund an ownership share in Tottenham on the strength of the assets of a company from which he had already resigned as a director.
Venables decided to leave the England job at the end of Euro 96 after the FA refused to grant him a contract extension leading up to the tournament.
John Terry's racism storm
England captain John Terry was stripped of the captaincy and subsequently retired from international football after the FA charged him with racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, the brother of his England teammate Rio Ferdinand.
Terry admitted that he had used the word 'black' and sworn at Ferdinand in November 2011 but insisted he had only been repeating words he thought the defender had accused him of saying.
He was cleared in court of racially abusing Ferdinand but the FA found the centre-back guilty, handing him a four-match ban and a £220,000 fine.
The incident had wider implications. England manager Fabio Capello resigned in protest at the FA's decision to take the armband from Terry without his approval.
The Bogota bracelet
England’s 1966 World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore was accused of stealing a £600 emerald bracelet from a shop in Colombia before the 1970 World Cup. Moore was placed under house arrest in Bogota for three days before being released to play at the tournament in Mexico.
The bizarre scandal happened after Moore went shopping with Bobby Charlton to find a present for his England team-mate's wife. The store owner called the police after the two had left the shop and one witness claimed he had seen the bracelet in Moore's pocket.
Moore was eventually cleared and it was claimed he had been the victim of a set-up with the aim of blackmailing him and generating publicity for the shop.
