Mark Sampson - Sacked as England Women's Head Coach

Surprised nothing has been put on here regarding this.

According to the FA they were made aware of a further indiscretion relating to his time in charge of Bristol Ladies Academy and have decided to act a day after he led England to a 6-0 win over Russia, where he was supported publicly by the team following the ongoing row with Eni Aluko.

Seems like another impressive c*ck up by the FA, especially as it's now being claimed they were advised not to hire him.

Apparently, these new 'safeguarding' rules state his is not a danger to any club, or it's players. So what is the actual issue? Race row aside, which he's been cleared of, twice, it alludes to him having some sort of relationship with a player or players during his time with Bristol.

Can't see the bloke getting a job anywhere else now, he's basically had his reputation completely tarnished in the public's view, without getting his say.

Worst case scenario is he shagged one of the players whilst at Bristol. Given he was sent on a mentoring course after the investigation o doubt it was even that serious.

Without getting into the he said she said part of it (no point debating without the facts), is what he is alleged to have said actually racist?

Saying hope they don't bring Ebola with them in response to being told people were travelling from Nigeria sounds like a joke to me (there was Ebola in Nigeria at the time).

The worst reflection is on the FA who have made a right royal balls of every aspect of this, from not reading bristol city's safeguarding report to paying aluko 80k to keep quiet before a tournament it has been a Frak.

The whole incident just demonstrates the incompetence of the FA. They clearly hired Sampson without doing their due-diligence, and while ignoring concerns raised during the hiring process. They then tried to hush up the concerns raised by Aluko, both by paying her off and by white-washing their inquiry. It also looks like they allowed Sampson to jettison Aluko in retaliation. Once the whole affair became public, the FA then cocked up the PR by requesting a black female lawyer to investigate the issue, and admitting they had done so only after their lawyers had denied it. Finally, they dismissed Sampson for the very things they'd ignored at the outset, presumably in a last desperate attempt to make the whole thing go away. All in all, they couldn't have handled it much worse if they had tried.

In response to Ent's question of "Is what Sampson said actually racist?", I'd say yes. There was an ebola outbreak in Nigeria around the time he made the comment to Aluko: superficially, you could dismiss that as a topical joke, without racial undertones. However, he also asked a mixed-race player (who has never been arrested) how many times they've been arrested. That's pretty crass, and suggests that the comment to Aluko was perhaps not just innocent banter.

Even if Sampson's comments were just poorly judged banter, the whole situation does paint him as having pretty poor judgement, and lacking the humility to learn from his mistakes.

He asked the player that during a team building role play exercise - the context of which is unknown.

Fa say he can work in football just not for the fa and no crimes have been committed. All very bizarre.

All the players celebrating with him speaks volumes in my opinion.

She's coming across a real spoilt brat who can't accept being dropped, the whole thing stinks of the FA simply appeasing her.

Aluko?