[Sport] England: 142 applications to replace Phil Neville as women's boss

[Shyloo]

 

A total of 142 people have applied for the England head coach's job, with more than half meeting the criteria, says Baroness Campbell, the Football Association's head of women's football.

 

Phil Neville will leave the role next summer, so his replacement will be in charge for Euro 2021 and may also lead Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics.

After that, England are targeting World Cup success in 2023.

"We've had an unbelievable response," said Baroness Campbell.

"I'm not judging it against what we've had in the past, it's saying, 'who has got the ability to take us right to the top of Everest?'

"We're at the final camp - how do we get to the top of that mountain? That's what my job is. To find that person for the players. They deserve the best and I want to get them the best if I can."

Who could replace Neville? :

His successor will have the rare privilege of leading the team into a European Championship on home soil, and could even oversee five major tournaments in the space of five summers.

With the rearranged Olympic Games of 2021 set to be followed by the Euros in 2022, a World Cup in 2023, the Paris 2024 Olympics and then the 2025 Euros, and with many of the senior England squad approaching the peaks of their careers, there has arguably never been a better time to manage the national team.

Neville's appointment in 2018 came as something of a surprise, but this time who are the main runners and riders to succeed him and, crucially, try to steer England to a first major trophy?

Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the leading contenders.

 

FA to make 124 jobs redundant :

 

English football's governing body - a not-for-profit organisation - says it is planning for potential financial losses of about £300m.

Eighty-two staff members will lose their jobs, while 42 vacancies will not be filled.

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said the organisation faced a "significant" financial challenge.

"It might seem that football has weathered the storm by getting the top flight men's game playing again," he said.

"However, unfortunately the past few months have impacted the FA severely and we have lost a significant amount of money that we can never recoup.

"We also anticipate that many of our future revenue streams will be affected for a considerable time."

The FA has lost all revenue from events due to be held at Wembley Stadium since March, and from events, such as music concerts and NFL matches, which the stadium was set to host later this year.

In addition, it has lost all revenue from hospitality - about £35m per year - at Wembley, which it anticipates "will probably take years to recover".

"Proposing redundancies is the toughest cost-saving measure that any organisation can consider implementing, but we believe that we must now adapt and future-proof the organisation to ensure our cost base reflects a future with significantly lower revenues," said Bullingham.

"We have a responsibility to preserve our core functions that regulate and serve English football. We also have a duty to support our men's and women's senior teams in their efforts to win major tournaments.

"That means we have set out in our proposals some difficult choices because we do not think we can afford to do all the things that we did before. We believe the impact of this crisis is to force us to focus more than ever on our key priorities."

He added: "The next few weeks will be very tough for everyone at the FA and our aim is to ensure that we emerge in the strongest possible state and be ready for better times in the future."

In the FA's financial statements to the year ending 31 July 2019, its directors were remunerated £1.1m.

Former chief executive Martin Glenn earned £814,000 while chairman Greg Clarke was paid £184,000.

 

Applications closed at the end of June, with Baroness Campbell saying last month that there had been "very, very good interest from significantly experienced coaches".

Jill Ellis, who coached the United States to World Cup victories in 2015 and 2019, remains a favourite to succeed Neville, while Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, ex-Manchester City coach Nick Cushing and Manchester United's Casey Stoney are among those in contention for the role.

The FA announced last month it would make 124 positions redundant, as it faces losses of around £300m caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Baroness Campbell says the women's game "has taken its hit" but insists that their plans will not be adversely affected by a £75m per year budget cut.

"I'm afraid the reality is smaller budgets, smaller focus, smaller staffing," she told Fair Play: The Women in Sport Show.

"What we're talking about now is what do we stop, and how do we find different, creative ways to do some of the things we were going to do through funding."

Edited July 13, 2020 by Shyloo
i didn't make the paragraph look good