Sport 31-10-2000 Swede To Be England Coach who: Sven Goran Eriksson what: Expected to sign up as England football coach where: Rome, Italy when: Today snippet: "Sven Goran Eriksson is England`s new manager," says The Sun this morning. "The Lazio boss becomes the first foreign coach of the national team." But despite Brian Woolnough`s insistence that Eriksson has signed a five year contract with the FA, the other British newspapers report only that the 52 year-old Swede has been in talks with Adam Crozier, the FA chief executive, in Rome and is expected to sign a deal today. An Italian news source reported yesterday that Eriksson will take up the England post on July 1st 2001. But last night a Football Association statement confirmed only that "The FA has discussed the possibility of his taking charge of the team both for key games in the short-term and in a full-time capacity in the long term". At a press conference at Lancaster Gate, David Davies, the FA`s executive director, promised: "Talks will resume in the near future." "The fact that Eriksson is not English will upset the traditionalists," comments Martin Thorpe in The Guardian, "but the main thing is that the FA appears to have achieved what it said it would and secured the talents of one of the best coaches in the world to turn round the flagging reputation of the England side." [... more]

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