England Football Is Empty Now

This is the nadir. We have said it before, but this time it really is. Knocked out of Euro 2016 by

Iceland, England have lost their new manager after one World Cup qualifier in an episode that points to a familiar systemic failure of governance.

Sam Allardyce leaves the job he says he always coveted after indulging a desire to add lucrative freelance work to the £3 million he was paid by the Football Association for a part-time role. This urge to top up that salary was displayed before Allardyce had even begun the process of raising England from their knees, to which they had dropped with the most humiliating defeat in their history.

The FA’s day of reckoning has been coming, and now it is here