Sven Goran Eriksson will be leaving the England managerial position after this year's World Cup in Germany. The decision by the English Football Association to terminate his contract following the finals comes after a series of controversies and humiliations.

A quick recap for those of you who haven't been following closely:


The Good

After England's home defeat to arch-rivals Germany in October 2000, coach Kevin Keegan resigned and the FA headhunted Eriksson from Italian club Lazio, who he led to Coppa Italia victory.

After a few easy wins, his mettle was tested in the next Anglo-German game, this time in Munich, with a 5-1 victory over the team that humiliated them eleven months before.

The 2002 World Cup campaign was a solid performance, until losing 2-1 to eventual victors Brazil.

Until 7th September 2005, Eriksson didn't lose a single international qualifier, an enviable record even for an England manager. Remember this date.


The Bad

The most oft-levelled criticism is of Eriksson's sometimes bizzare tactical decisions, which are held responsible for England's embarassing performances against Australia, Macedonia and Denmark , and England's lack of success in Euro 2004, where they were beaten by both France and Portugal.

Then there came the greatest night in my personal football history. Remember that date, 7th September 2005? England played Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park, here in Belfast, losing 1-0 to a side whose collective paycheques wouldn't cover Rio Ferdinand's mortage. This was seen as a humiliating defeat for the English (they were lucky not to lose 2-0) and Sven has been bloodied ever since.


The Ugly

Eriksson has an eye for the ladies, as fellow (married) Swede and TV personality Ulrika Jonsson will tell you. The same for Faria Alam, a former FA secretary who had an affair with Eriksson and was on this year's Celebrity Big Brother.

Then, last week, tabloid News Of The World published an exposé on Sven - the Swede had been stung by the 'Fake Sheik', an undercover journalist who posed as a wealthy Arab attempting to emulate Roman Abramovich's success with Chelsea. Eriksson made several indiscrete comments regarding his position, buying David Beckham back from Real Madrid, and perhaps setting up at Aston Villa.

On Monday, the FA announced he would not be leading the team past the World Cup finals.

Thoughts?

The main thing which has left a bad after taste is the way the English media

(a) are, in part, xenephobic bastards and
(b) seem to relish in taking apart the England manager.

Remember "Turnip Head" Taylor? How they turned upon their former darling Kevin Keegan? Jesus, even St. Bobby of Robson was torn apart (before leading England to a World Cup semi-final). It is little wonder that England haven't won a major competition for so long when you consider how rabid the tabloids can be. The "Ingerlund" brigade can go fuck themselves. Racist bigots It does not surprise me that people do not want England to win the WC for the simple reason that they will never shut up about it.

As for Sven, I think England are losing a talented manager. He did well in 2002 only to be scuppered by the scorching heat. In 2004 he could have been better, but he did lost Rooney early on against Portugal. I mean, honestly, who gives two fucks who he's bumping uglies with?

As a Scot, I think turmoil in the English game is good. It will be unbearable if they win the world cup this year. I do feel for the man, he was persecuted, ridiculed, and hung out to dry. This News of the world thing was such a set up. I think really this was just the final straw. All his womanising and storied in the press, I think the FA just had enough.

The English media is like a rabid dog, once they get thier teeth into someone they don't let go. Charles Kennedy, Sven, and George Galloway are three recent examples

Eh, NOTW can get away with this kind of crap because it sells. The papers are only as good as the people who buy them.

That's a pretty damning indictment of the English press, it's one of the biggest dailies there.

My mum's English and she's pretty pissed off about the whole thing, if they were a national newspaper, why would they do something so potentially damaging to the team's morale during World Cup year?

They don't care. The story is big. It sells lots of copies. Shareholders are happy. The right response to this would've been what Liverpool did to The Sun after Hillsborough- stop buying newspapers because of the outright crap.

I think you may be on to something there. I don't buy it because it's a piece of trash, but there's always a couple of copies lying around the staffroom at work...