England on Wednesday sacked women’s national soccer team manager Mark Sampson as a consequence of “inappropriate and unacceptable” behavior in a previous position.
The Football Association (FA) said that Sampson’s contract had been terminated with immediate effect, although the decision was not due to allegations that he made discriminatory remarks to one of his England players.
Sampson, whose side beat Russia 6-0 in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday, has been accused of discrimination by Chelsea striker Eniola Aluko.
Sampson, who took charge of the England team in 2013 after working with Bristol Academy, denies the allegations and has been cleared of wrongdoing by two investigations — one internal and the other an independent review.
The FA said it stood by the findings of the independent investigation, but another situation had emerged.
“In 2014, safeguarding allegations were made against him about his time with Bristol Academy,” the FA said in a statement, without elaborating. “The safeguarding assessment was that he did not pose a risk working in the game.”
“However, the full report of that investigation was only brought to the attention of the current FA leadership last week and it is our judgement that it revealed clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behavior by a coach.” it said.
Martin Glenn told reporters at a hastily convened news conference that no laws had been broken, but Sampson had “overstepped the professional boundaries between player and coach.”
British Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society Tracey Crouch said the situation was a mess and raised serious questions about whether the FA’s historic processes around the recruitment of coaches were appropriate.
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