Sweep
Journeyman Pro
Mark Sampson has been sacked as England Women football head coach by the FA after nearly 4 years in the job. Apparently he was dismissed after the FA was made aware of his conduct when he was manager at Bristol Academy. The FA say a report "revealed clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour" and the full report was only brought to the attention of the current FA leadership last week. However, Bristol Academy say that they were made aware of the FA investigation into allegations over Sampson in 2014 but they haven't had any further contact with the FA on the issue. The 2014 report concluded that Sampson "did not pose a risk".
The FA says it still stands by the findings of the investigation into the more recent allegations made by player Eni Aluko which found no evidence of any wrongdoing, so Sampson's sacking is nothing to do with that. Sampson was immediately removed as patron of the charity Women in Sport after his dismissal.
Seemingly the FA decided to sack him last week but left him in post for the match against Russia. In any event they had full knowledge of the report and the "clear" evidence last week.
This all seems a bit odd. Even the Sports Minister has waded in, saying it's "a mess".
So, as I understand it, he has been sacked for something he did in a former job that was investigated 3 years ago by the people who have just sacked him, after he has been doing a very successful job for almost 4 years. On top of that, the people who have just sacked him say it's nothing to do with allegations of a similar nature that they have also investigated and also found nothing. Despite him then being deemed guilty 3 years after the fact and against the findings of the original report, it seems they let him carry on for a few days more. As this would seem to leave the current players at risk it would be interesting to know what this "inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour" consisted of. I am sure I am not the only one wondering if the FA was more concerned about the Russia result than protecting their players from this kind of behaviour. Behaviour bad enough to get him the sack.
This all seems a bit strange and as the Minister says, it's a mess.
The FA says it still stands by the findings of the investigation into the more recent allegations made by player Eni Aluko which found no evidence of any wrongdoing, so Sampson's sacking is nothing to do with that. Sampson was immediately removed as patron of the charity Women in Sport after his dismissal.
Seemingly the FA decided to sack him last week but left him in post for the match against Russia. In any event they had full knowledge of the report and the "clear" evidence last week.
This all seems a bit odd. Even the Sports Minister has waded in, saying it's "a mess".
So, as I understand it, he has been sacked for something he did in a former job that was investigated 3 years ago by the people who have just sacked him, after he has been doing a very successful job for almost 4 years. On top of that, the people who have just sacked him say it's nothing to do with allegations of a similar nature that they have also investigated and also found nothing. Despite him then being deemed guilty 3 years after the fact and against the findings of the original report, it seems they let him carry on for a few days more. As this would seem to leave the current players at risk it would be interesting to know what this "inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour" consisted of. I am sure I am not the only one wondering if the FA was more concerned about the Russia result than protecting their players from this kind of behaviour. Behaviour bad enough to get him the sack.
This all seems a bit strange and as the Minister says, it's a mess.