Soccer: World Cup to be Eriksson's swansong

Sven-Goran Eriksson will go after June. Picture / Reuters

LONDON - Sven-Goran Eriksson will leave his post as England head soccer coach after the World Cup, which ends on July 9.

The Swede's contract ran until 2008. Eriksson held talks with the Football Association yesterday after a second weekend of embarrassing revelations in the News of the World.

"The FA and Sven felt it was important to clarify his future. This is for the benefit of everyone connected with English football, especially the fans," FA chief executive Brian Barwick said on the FA's website.

"This is the right outcome and I would like to thank Sven and his advisers for their tremendous co-operation. As I have said before, our main objective is giving Sven and the England team the best chance of achieving success at the World Cup. Sven is definitely the man to lead us in Germany."

The 57-year-old Eriksson, who became the first foreigner to coach the England national team when he was appointed in 2000, said he was happy the situation had been resolved.

"This summer is the culmination of everything we have been working towards over the last five years. Let's go and win the World Cup."

Under Eriksson, England have qualified for three major tournaments, and many believe his squad have a realistic chance of winning the cup.

At the 2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan, England reached the quarter-finals before losing to eventual winners Brazil.

Two years later England were beaten on penalties by hosts Portugal in the European Championship.

Eriksson has had to endure criticism on and off the pitch with a liberal sprinkling of tabloid stories about his private life.

Despite an embarrassing 0-1 defeat by Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier in September, England qualified as group winners, thanks to a 2-1 defeat of Poland in their final match.

In November, a 3-2 friendly victory over Argentina fuelled optimism about the World Cup, in June.

But more tabloid headlines in the past two weeks have once again turned the spotlight on the Swede. Many in the game demanded he be replaced.

In a News of the World sting, Eriksson was quoted as telling a journalist posing as a wealthy Arab businessman that he would be prepared to dump England to take over at Premier League club Aston Villa.

A week later, the same newspaper quoted him as saying that three Premier League clubs had been involved in illegal payments in relation to transfers.

- REUTERS