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The FA was accused of "failing to carry out due diligence before appointing Sam Allardyce as England manager by a veteran agent who said he could have warned them off the shamed coach," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. Mel Stein, the former representative of Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer and Chris Waddle, claimed the FA "would have been spared the embarrassment of having to sack Allardyce after 67 days" if it had contacted him or his colleagues when hunting for Roy Hodgson’s successor. The 61-year-old was appointed "despite an independent inquiry into alleged football corruption 10 years ago" citing a "conflict of interest" between Allardyce and his son, Craig, and Bolton Wanderers, "over transfers when he was in charge there." Speaking at the Leaders Sport Business Summit at Stamford Bridge, Stein said, "I'm not suggesting in any shape, form or size that we should be involved in appointing an England manager. If anybody had spoken to any of us about their [the FA’s] last appointment, we would’ve said, 'You know what, he’s not Mother Teresa. He’s a very good manager but there is some kind of a storm brewing.' ... I’m not saying he’s guilty of anything. But, clearly, if you were looking for somebody who was going to not cause you any problem, probably Allardyce was not your man." The FA "did not respond to Stein’s attack." Football League CEO Shaun Harvey said that the revelations had made football look "cheap." He said, "The reputation of the business side of football took a battering. It looked, at times, cheap; it looked at times like there was a lack of class" (
TELEGRAPH, 10/6). EUROSPORT reported "rather incredibly, Stein then suggested that the FA had buried its head in the sand over Allardyce" in the same way that the "BBC did with Jimmy Savile." Stein: "Just like Jimmy Savile at the BBC, when people came out of the woodwork afterwards saying, 'Well, everybody knew about Jimmy Savile.'" While "his point is clear, Stein must have known that this would be a highly inflammatory remark," one which saw his comments "splashed across the back of one tabloid on Thursday" (
EUROSPORT, 10/6). The PA wrote sources said that Allardyce is "outraged" after Stein said the FA "could have dug deeper for information before appointing him as England boss." Allardyce "is considering legal action after being made aware of Stein's comments on Wednesday evening." Allardyce felt Stein's comments "were outrageous and he is taking advice over further action" (
PA, 10/6).
