England - The Southgate Years

[Mad Jack]

2 hours ago, Colly said:

Is the idea behind this pidgin thing that it's just the normal BBC website but a bit more racist? 

No, it's a legitimate thing spoken by 75 million people in Nigeria alone. It's the same as any other foreign language version of the BBC website.

[MDK]

8 minutes ago, Colly said:

Ah ok. But it's being picked up on here because it looks funny? 

Yes.

It also reminds me of my mate from Hackney.

[Lineker]

I was encouraged to laugh at it by my Nigerian pidgin speaking colleague so it's all good.

[Colly]

That was Big Ron's excuse... 

[Lineker]

The BBC understands that Mark Sampson is set to leave his role as England Women's manager. The FA is expected to confirm his departure at a press conference this afternoon.

[Twist]

2 minutes ago, Lineker said:

The BBC understands that Mark Sampson is set to leave his role as England Women's manager. The FA is expected to confirm his departure at a press conference this afternoon.

Birmingham?

Or because he's well racist? Seems a Birmingham thing to do to appoint a manager embroiled in a racism row though.

Edited September 20, 2017 by Twist

[Lineker]

So apparently he was sacked: 

Mark Sampson has been sacked by the Football Association after the chief executive, Martin Glenn, became aware of the “full detail” of inappropriate relations the England manager had with female players while he was manager of Bristol Academy.

Sampson was deemed fit to continue as England manager after the FA carried out a safeguarding investigation when the allegations were first made in March 2014. Glenn, who joined the governing body 12 months later, insists he was first told of the investigation in October 2015 and read the full report for the first time only last week when someone from outside the FA advised him to do so.

It is understood allegations of bullying and racism made by Eni Aluko against Sampson and first revealed by the Guardian prompted other whistleblowers to come forward and raise concerns about the suitability of the Welshman for the job of England manager. He vehemently denies the allegations.

Sampson’s departure comes less than 24 hours after England beat Russia 6-0 in their first World Cup qualifying match. During that game he was embraced by the players in a clear demonstration of support for the manager in the wake of the Aluko allegations. The 34-year-old’s contract was due to expire in June 2019 but he was informed over the phone by Glenn on Wednesday afternoon that it would be terminated immediately. It is understood his salary was between £100,000 and £150,000 a year and it is understood he will receive a pay-off of around £20,000.

Glenn and the FA’s chairman, Greg Clarke, held a specially convened press conference at Wembley to discuss Sampson’s shock departure. “I have to say it is the most awkward and complicated issue I have ever dealt with,” said Glenn. “In 2014 there was a safeguarding-related complaint made about Mark when he was coach at Bristol Academy. He had been an FA employee for just a few months at that point. There was a full investigation, a proper investigation, an assessment process and when the report concluded in March 2015 he was deemed not to be a safeguarding risk.

“However the full report of that investigation was only made known to me last week,” he added. “On reading it I immediately shared it with Greg and we were both deeply concerned with the contents of the report. Let’s be really clear: no laws were broken; Greg and I are not able to challenge the professional views of our safeguarding experts. We thought the conduct issues raised in the report were what the problem was.

“Mark had overstepped the professional boundaries between player and coach.”

Glenn said that the decision was ratified by a meeting of the FA board on Monday.

The minister for sport, Tracey Crouch, said: “This situation is a mess and raises very serious questions about whether the historic processes that the FA had in place around the recruitment of coaches were appropriate, for something like this to have been missed. The FA are right to have taken action but reassurances is needed to make sure this does not happen again at any level of coaching.”

- The Guardian

[MDK]

Well done, FA, well done. 3 years ago a full investigation into something and only a week ago someone decided it might be worth having a look at.

[DavidMarrio]

Can we just burn the FA to the ground and set up an actual competent footballing body? 

[Lineker]

There's some serious allegations about him that aren't yet public too. They don't seem baseless either.

[hugobomb]

18 hours ago, Twist said:

Birmingham?

Or because he's well racist? Seems a Birmingham thing to do to appoint a manager embroiled in a racism row though.

Nah, it's Wigan's job to hire the racists.

[Twist]

11 minutes ago, hugobomb said:

Nah, it's Wigan's job to hire the racists.

If he waits long enough the Chesterfield or Sheffield United jobs might become available as well. By the sounds of it he'll fit right in there too.

[Adam]

2 hours ago, Twist said:

If he waits long enough the Chesterfield or Sheffield United jobs might become available as well. By the sounds of it he'll fit right in there too.

Is that a Ched Evans reference? He's not even been accused of being racist.

The Chesterfield job is currently available anyway.

[Twist]

2 minutes ago, Adam said:

Is that a Ched Evans reference? He's not even been accused of being racist.

The Chesterfield job is currently available anyway.

It's a sexual predator reference, not a racism reference.

[Adam]

2 minutes ago, Twist said:

It's a sexual predator reference, not a racism reference.

So, a Ched Evans reference then. As it stands he is currently not a convicted rapist though, something which I think is the primary reason why Sheff Utd even decided to re-sign him.

[Twist]

1 minute ago, Adam said:

So, a Ched Evans reference then. As it stands he is currently not a convicted rapist though, something which I think is the primary reason why Sheff Utd even decided to re-sign him.

True. It was flippant remark anyway. Silly on my part really.

[Adam]

Let's all just agree that racism is bad, sexual assault is bad and the FA and various governing bodies should maybe do more about potential risks being put in positions of power. Between this and the Allardyce fiasco, the FA just look like total bloody muppets yet again.

[Lineker]

Quote

Women in Football has said it is “deeply concerned” by the latest revelations surrounding Mark Sampson and have claimed that questions about the former England manager’s suitability for the job were flagged to the Football Association as early as 2013.

Sampson, who was appointed England manager in December 2013, was sacked on Wednesday after the FA said it had been alerted to “clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour by a coach” while he was at Bristol Academy.

It was previously thought the FA was first made aware of allegations that Sampson had engaged in inappropriate relationships with female players at Bristol in March 2014. After a 12-month investigation he was cleared by the FA’s safeguarding team to continue in his role. Martin Glenn, who was appointed the FA chief executive in March 2015, became aware of the investigation in October 2015 but apparently asked to see the full detail of the report only last week.

“WiF understands that questions over Sampson’s suitability for the role were flagged to the FA as early as 2013 during the recruitment process,” Women in Football said in a statement. “The safeguarding investigation of 2014, Sampson being sent on an education course in 2015, Eniola Aluko’s complaint in 2016 and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson’s Duty of Care report published in April 2017 were all missed opportunities for the governing body to more closely examine the issues.

“Indeed it is unfathomable that an England manager could be sent on a course to emphasise the appropriate boundaries between coach and player, as a direct result of a safeguarding investigation, and not be subject to any sort of due diligence. WiF routinely receive complaints of discrimination and abuse from women working in football. We rely on the governing body’s ability to properly investigate these issues in a transparent and competent manner.”

Glenn, meanwhile, will be questioned by MPs about why he did not ask sooner to see the full details of the safeguarding allegations made against Sampson concerning his time at Bristol Academy.

Damian Collins, the chair of the culture, media and sport (CMS) select committee, believes Glenn should lose his job if it is found advice and warnings that might have seen the contract of the England women’s manager terminated earlier were ignored.

Collins has summoned Glenn and other FA executives to appear before the CMS inquiry on 18 October. It was originally intended to delve deeper into concerns raised by Aluko about the FA’s investigation into claims of bullying, harassment and racism during Sampson’s reign, first reported by the Guardian.

“Our concern is looking into the scope of investigation into the concerns raised about Mark Sampson recently by Aluko and in the past,” said Collins. “To say: ‘Actually was there information readily available to the FA that had they sought it out they would’ve terminated much earlier?’ Be it Martin Glenn or whoever, if it’s found that they ignored advice and warnings that were clear then I think their position does become untenable.”

Aluko first made allegations of discriminatory behaviour on Sampson’s part in a “culture review” by the FA that she was promised would remain anonymous. A week later, the Chelsea striker was dropped from the national setup by Sampson, who accused her of “unlioness behaviour.” The FA says the timing of her losing her place was a coincidence.

In March 2016 an FA investigation cleared Sampson of any wrongdoing but Collins believes executives at the FA should have demanded sight of the report into Sampson’s time at Bristol.

“When Aluko’s allegations emerged earlier this year at that point they should have said we should look back at the previous report because that was similarly an investigation into his conduct,” said Collins. “That wasn’t done. We’re going to hold an evidence session of the committee next month with Eni Aluko discussing her allegations and concerns. I hope Martin Glenn and other senior people from the FA will be here not just to answer questions on that but also these important questions of who knew what and when, when considering Mark Sampson’s position.

“Clearly, by the FA’s own admission, after seeing the full report based on the previous investigation he wasn’t fit to do the job, he wasn’t someone who should ever have been appointed.”

It is the second time in less than a year that an England manager has lost their job over off-field issues. Sam Allardyce was sacked after being caught up in a newspaper sting. Collins suggested there may be a rotten culture at the FA.

“Many people will see this alongside other issues, child abuse in football, appointment of Sam Allardyce and say they don’t seem to learn,” said Collins. “They don’t seem to have proper systems in place that allows good governance.

“Certainly there is a systems failure which means things aren’t routinely flagged up. If they are and people are ignoring those flags it’s even more concerning. Whatever it is at the heart of it, it’s not working. Time and time again the FA fall short of the standards we would expect.”

[Lineker]

Fifa is set to lift its controversial ban on the home nations teams wearing poppies on their shirts or armbands in time for England’s proposed friendly against Germany the evening before Armistice Day.

[Colly]

"Should always have been the case, how is it political?" says everyone until a home nation plays Ireland. There's something in there that says the respective nations have to agree, could be interesting...