Steve McClaren paid the price of England's failure to qualify
for Euro 2008 yesterday when he was unceremoniously dismissed from
his position as head coach.
McClaren, who had refused to resign, was sacked less than 12
hours after a 3-2 win for Croatia at Wembley - combined with
Russia's 1-0 win in Andorra - confirmed that England would miss out
on a major tournament for the first time since the 1994 World Cup
in the United States.
An emergency meeting of the Football Association (FA)'s
Executive Board was wound up almost as soon as it began with
McClaren's employers unanimously agreeing that they had no option
but to call an end to the former Middlesbrough manager's hapless
15-month reign.
McClaren's assistant Terry Venables was also sacked as the FA
pledged a "root and branch" inquest into how an England squad that
can call upon some of the biggest names in world football had
failed to get through a group that was regarded as easily
negotiable when the qualifying draw was made two years ago.
FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick, the man who appointed McClaren
and gave him a four-year contract with no penalties for failure,
said the board had been left with no alternative.
"In the end, not qualifying for Euro 2008 comes up short,"
Barwick said. "Qualification for a major tournament is probably a
minimum requirement."
The FA said it would immediately begin a search for a successor
to McClaren but, with England having no scheduled matches before a
friendly in France in March, has set no timeframe on the selection
process.
Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill, who was a candidate for the
position when McClaren got the job in the wake of the 2006 World
Cup, is regarded as the best-placed candidate. Villa owner Randy
Lerner has indicated that he will not stand in his way if he wants
to take on the role.
The FA will inevitably also look at the possibility of
approaching Jose Mourinho, who has been out of work since leaving
Chelsea in September, but it must be doubtful whether he would want
the job and whether the governing body would be able or willing to
handle such a controversial figure.
McClaren, who stepped up from his former role as number two to
Sven Goran Eriksson in the wake of the last World Cup, was
handicapped from the start by a feeling that he was both a natural
number two and a second-choice appointment, the FA having bungled
approaches to both Guus Hiddink and Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Although McClaren refused to resign immediately after he and his
players were booed off the Wembley turf by an angry capacity crowd,
he did agree that he had to take responsibility for his squad's
failure.
"It is an indescribable pain," McClaren said. "There is so much
expectation, both from the fans in the stadium and the people
watching on TV at home.
"We have let them down. We know what they are feeling - we are
feeling exactly the same.
"I take responsibility. Ultimately, I said judge me over 12
games. We deserve to be where we finish and we have not deserved to
qualify. That is my responsibility."
Those remarks suggest McClaren knew that his fate was sealed. By
refusing to resign however he ensured that his employers would be
obliged to pay him off for the remaining two years of his
contract.
Having presided over a qualifying campaign in which England lost
three out of 12 matches as well as being held to draws in Israel
and - ultimately fatally - at home to Macedonia, McClaren will walk
away with a severence payment in the region of 2.5 million pounds
($5.1 million).
That particular bill will take the total cost of his time in
charge to more than 10 million pounds - missing out on Euro 2008
will cost the FA a minimum of eight million pounds in prize money
and television revenue.
In the long-term, the losses could be many times that figure
because of the damage the debacle of the qualifying campaign has
done to the brand value of what was once regarded as a 'golden'
generation of England players.
(China Daily via Agencies November 23, 2007)