England

Alan Shearer blasts England as "laughing stock" following Sam Allardyce exit

By Giuseppe Labellarte, Reporter | 27 September 2016

Former England striker Alan Shearer believes that the nature of Sam Allardyce's departure as manager has turned the nation into the "laughing stock of world football".

Former England striker Alan Shearer has criticised Sam Allardyce's departure from the Three Lions hotseat, claiming that the situation has turned the country into the "laughing stock of world football".

Allardyce left the England manager's role by mutual consent on Tuesday after Telegraph sting accused the 61-year-old of suggesting that it was possible to "get around" an FA rule banning third parties from owning part of a player's economic rights.

Shearer told BBC Sport: "I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm staggered at the misjudgement from a guy who admitted this was his dream job. It's incredible and a catastrophic misjudgement by Sam and his advisors. For him to sit in that room in front of those guys is a huge, huge error.

"I'm angry at the whole situation, I didn't think England could stoop any lower from what happened in the summer at the Euros. Now here we are, a laughing stock of world football.

"We've got a problem with money. It's greed. It's that there's so much money in our game. People demand and ask for more. That's the situation we're in now, we have to handle it now, we have to deal with it in the right way, we have to be able to accept people laughing at us."

Allardyce, who succeeded Roy Hodgson in July following England's last-16 exit at Euro 2016, becomes the national side's shortest-serving full-time manager after just 67 days and one game at the helm.