Gareth Southgate says it’s ‘time for change’ and announces he will step down as England manager

England's manager Gareth Southgate at the end of the final match between Spain and England at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Berlin Sunday. Spain won 2-1. Southgate announces Tuesday he will step down as England manager. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 17 July 2024
Follow

Gareth Southgate says it’s ‘time for change’ and announces he will step down as England manager

  • Southgate’s contract was due to expire this year and his announcement comes after months of uncertainty surrounding his future
  • Southgate achieved what no other England manager has by leading his team to two finals, including a first on foreign soil

LONDON: After eight years, four major tournaments and two finals, Gareth Southgate announced he was stepping down as England manager on Tuesday, saying it was “time for change.”

Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Spain in the European Championship final proved to be his last game in charge of the national team.

“As a proud Englishman, it has been the honor of my life to play for England and to manage England. It has meant everything to me, and I have given it my all,” he said. “But it’s time for change, and for a new chapter.”

Southgate’s contract was due to expire this year and his announcement comes after months of uncertainty surrounding his future.

Mikel Oyarzabal’s 86th-minute winner in Berlin was a painful way to end his reign after he transformed the fortunes of England’s underperforming national team.

Hired in 2016, he led England to back-to-back finals at the Euros and to the semifinals of the World Cup in 2018.

But, ultimately, he was unable to end the nation’s decades-long wait for a first major trophy since the World Cup in 1966.

“Gareth, I want to thank you — not as the President of the FA, but as an England fan,” Prince William said on X. “Thank you for creating a team that stands shoulder to shoulder with the world’s finest in 2024. Thank you for showing humility, compassion, and true leadership under the most intense pressure and scrutiny. And thank you for being an all-round class act. You should be incredibly proud of what you’ve achieved. W.”

Southgate said before the European Championship that it would likely be his last tournament if England did not win.

During it, he faced fierce criticism for the team’s early performances and some fans threw plastic beer cups in his direction at the end of the 0-0 draw with Slovenia in the group phase.

But he achieved what no other England manager has by leading his team to two finals, including a first on foreign soil.

“Gareth has made the impossible job possible and laid strong foundations for future success. He is held in the highest regard by the players, the backroom team, by everyone at the FA and across the world of football,” said Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the English Football Association.

Before Southgate’s arrival England had won only seven knockout games at tournaments since 1966. The team won nine during his tenure.

England was also in the top five of FIFA’s rankings for six years under Southgate. Previously its longest run had been seven months.

Southgate was not an obvious choice to take over when hired after Sam Allardyce’s one-match reign came to an end after just 67 days in charge.

He didn’t have a stellar managerial career, with a three-year spell at Middlesbrough his only job in club soccer.

But he was well-respected within the FA for his work with England’s under-21 team and he exceeded all expectations with the senior job.

The World Cup semifinal in 2018 came after England had suffered the humiliation of being eliminated by Iceland at Euro 2016 and failed to advance beyond the group stage of the World Cup in 2014.

England had not advanced to a semifinal since Euro 96 and hadn’t reached that stage of a World Cup since 1990.

At the Euros in 2021, Southgate went one better by leading his team to the final, which it lost to Italy in a penalty shootout.

England were tied 1-1 with Spain in the final on Sunday before Oyarzabal’s late winner.

“We look back at Gareth’s tenure with huge pride — his contribution to the English game, including a significant role in player development, and in culture transformation has been unique. However, it is his record of winning tournament games which is most extraordinary,” Bullingham said.

Southgate was widely seen as a unifying figure during a period of political upheaval in English politics and society, taking over the national team shortly after a divisive referendum on leaving the European Union and seeing five different prime ministers during his time in charge.

“Gareth Southgate’s greatest achievement was not on the pitch, but in the standard that he has set for how a role model and representative of our country should conduct themselves,” Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said on X. “His legacy will be a generation of young people who have learned from him that leadership is primarily about decency, integrity and bringing honor to others. That is worth more to our country than any trophy.”

Now thoughts will turn to finding Southgate’s successor and the FA said the process was already underway.

Jurgen Klopp stepped down as Liverpool manager at the end of last season, but the German has said he wants to take a break.

Former Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino is out of work, as well as former Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel.

Sarina Wiegman has led the England Women’s team to success in the Euros and also to the final of the World Cup last year.

Leading English contenders could include Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, former Chelsea bosses Graham Potter and Frank Lampard and England Under-21 manager Lee Carsley.

England play Ireland in the Nations League on Sept. 7, but the FA said it was prepared to go into that match with an interim coach, rather than rush to a decision on its next manager.


Australia struggle in World Cup qualifying as Son lifts South Korea

Updated 22 sec ago
Follow

Australia struggle in World Cup qualifying as Son lifts South Korea

  • Australia carved out a succession of chances but lacked any cutting edge, coming closest when Bayern Munich teenager Nestory Irankunda thundered a shot against the post
  • South Korea’s English Premier League strike force of Hwang Hee-chan and Son Heung-min both scored as they beat Oman 3-1 in Muscat

HONG KONG: Australia failed to score for the second successive match, but Son Heung-min scored a stunning goal as South Korea got off the mark in Asian World Cup qualifying on Tuesday.
Graham Arnold’s Socceroos, having been shocked at home 1-0 by Bahrain last week, dominated a Group C encounter with Indonesia but were held 0-0 in front of almost 80,000 fans at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
Australia carved out a succession of chances but lacked any cutting edge, coming closest when Bayern Munich teenager Nestory Irankunda thundered a shot against the post.
“It was our game all along,” Irankunda said. “We should have won it. We should have put them away in the first half.”
Next month, Arnold’s men face China at home in Group C and then a tough trip to in-form Japan.
“There’s eight games to go,” said Arnold. “It’s not like it’s a disaster, but I’ve got to go home and do a lot of thinking.”
South Korea’s English Premier League strike force of Hwang Hee-chan and Son Heung-min both scored as they beat Oman 3-1 in Muscat.
Wolverhampton’s Hwang opened the scoring after 19 minutes before Jung Seungh-hyun’s own goal equalized on the stroke of half-time.
Tottenham’s Son got South Korea’s second, turning outside the box and firing home an unstoppable left-foot finish on 82 minutes.
Joo Min-kyu put the result beyond doubt in the 11th minute of added time after being played in by Son.
It was South Korea’s first win in the final Asian qualifying phase after they were held goalless at home by Palestine last week.
The Palestinians could not repeat their heroic performance in Seoul, however, and were beaten 3-1 by Jordan in a match played in Kuala Lumpur because of the war in Gaza.
North Korea drew 2-2 with Asian Cup champions Qatar in wild weather in a Group A match played in Vientiane.
Ri Il Song gave North Korea an early lead, in what was nominally their home fixture, before they were reduced to 10 men when Jang Kuk Chol was red carded for preventing a goal-scoring opportunity.
Akram Afif scored the resulting penalty and Almoez Ali put the Qataris 2-1 up at half-time.
After the break, the heavens opened violently, dumping huge amounts of water on the Laos National Stadium pitch.
Kang Kuk Chol pierced the gloom with a rasping free-kick equalizer from 30 yards before puddles on the pitch grew into lakes leaving the referee no choice but to take the players off.
There was a delay of more than 20 minutes until the rain eased but when the teams resumed there were no further goals as the players struggled on the waterlogged surface.
In another Group A match Uzbekistan beat Kyrgyzstan 3-2 in Bishkek.
The top two from each of the three six-team Asian groups will be guaranteed a place at the expanded 48-team World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The third qualifying round wraps up in June.


Vincent Labrune re-elected to another 4-year term as French soccer league president

Updated 26 min 33 sec ago
Follow

Vincent Labrune re-elected to another 4-year term as French soccer league president

  • The league (LFP) said Labrune received strong support from the board and was then elected by the general assembly in the first round
  • The vote was expected to be tighter because Labrune had faced criticism in recent months over the handling of the league’s TV rights

PARIS: French league president Vincent Labrune was re-elected Tuesday to another four-year term with an overwhelming majority.
The league (LFP) said Labrune, who was formerly club president of nine-time French champion Marseille, received strong support from the board and was then elected by the general assembly in the first round of ballots with 85.67 percent percent of the votes.
“After a first mandate marked by emergency solutions and long-term responses to the unprecedented crisis in the financing of audiovisual rights, an era of transformation for professional soccer has now begun,” the league said in a statement.”
The vote was expected to be tighter because Labrune had faced criticism in recent months over the handling of the league’s TV rights.
Following the collapse of its record-breaking TV rights contract with Spanish-based broadcaster Mediapro four years ago, the league hoped it could get up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) per year from the sale of broadcasting rights for 2024-29 but had to lower its target.
In the end, the league settled for 500 million euros per year after sealing a late deal with British streaming platform DAZN and BeIN Sports.
Under Labrune, the French soccer league also approved an investment deal with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners as part of a new commercial subsidiary in charge of marketing media rights. CVC invested 1.5 billion euros in return for a 13 percent stake in the new commercial subsidiary managing TV rights, valuing the entire capital of the commercial subsidiary at 11.5 billion euros.
The CVC deal, which was sealed in 2022 after French soccer came close of bankruptcy, is supported by a large majority of clubs. But it has been challenged by Le Havre, which launched a lawsuit against the French league because it is unhappy with the repartition of the money.
In addition, the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office said this year it was assessing a complaint focusing on possible misappropriation of public funds when the LFP’s trading company was created following the partial transfer of capital to CVC.
The league said Tuesday it will now work on reducing the deficit of its clubs and enhancing the value of its competitions in partnership with broadcasters and CVC.
After the Mediapro collapse, the league was forced to ask the government to set up a financial rescue plan amid huge revenue losses exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The deal with Mediapro should have been worth more than 4 billion euros ($4.8 billion) over four years for the top two tiers but collapsed after only four months.


Italy beat Israel in Nations League

Updated 10 September 2024
Follow

Italy beat Israel in Nations League

BUDAPEST: Italy continued their post-Euro 2024 recovery on Monday with a tight 2-1 Nations League win over Israel in Budapest.

Goals in each half from Davide Frattesi and Moise Kean were enough for Italy to win in a subdued atmosphere at the Bozsik Arena which hosted the Israel home fixture due to the security situation in the Middle East.

Luciano Spalletti’s team have reacted well to their disastrous European Championship title defense, which ended at the last-16 stage, and were deserved winners on a soaking night in the Hungarian capital.

The crowd of 2,000 fans meant Monday’s match didn’t have the feel of a senior international match, with the main off-pitch event coming during Israel’s national anthem ahead of kick-off, when a small group of Italy fans turned their backs to the pitch.

The Azzurri were slow starters as they were in Friday’s 3-1 win over France in Paris, but were not punished by Israel and grew into the match.

By the time Frattesi chested home Federico Dimarco’s pinpoint cross in the 38th minute, his sixth international goal since Spalletti replaced Roberto Mancini just over a year ago, Italy were firmly on top.

Sagiv Jehezkel should have levelled for Israel just after half-time when he failed to divert Dor Peretz’s scuffed shot past Gianluigi Donnarumma from close range.

But in the 62nd minute Fiorentina striker Kean scored his first Italy goal in almost exactly three years to seal the points, with Mohamed Abu Fani’s strike in the final minute too late for Israel to mount a comeback.


France beat Belgium with Kolo Muani and Dembele goals

Updated 10 September 2024
Follow

France beat Belgium with Kolo Muani and Dembele goals

LYON: Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembele scored the goals as France bounced back from a home loss to Italy at the weekend by beating Belgium 2-0 in the UEFA Nations League on Monday.

It was not a full-strength French team that took to the field for the game in Lyon, with captain Kylian Mbappe dropping out as one of eight changes made by coach Didier Deschamps.

France lost 3-1 to Italy in Paris on Friday despite taking the lead inside 13 seconds, while Belgium came into this match fresh from beating Israel by the same scoreline.

This game was a repeat of the Euro 2024 last-16 tie which France won 1-0 in Duesseldorf thanks to a late own goal.

Les Bleus went ahead here just before the half-hour mark, Kolo Muani applying the finish after Dembele’s mishit shot was pushed out by Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels.

A Belgian side captained by Kevin De Bruyne could not find an equalizer and France scored again on 57 minutes thanks to a fine individual effort by Dembele.

The Paris Saint-Germain winger skipped inside from the right wing before blasting a shot into the net on his left foot.

Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Michael Olize were among the players who came off the bench for France in the second half, as they saw out a victory which will boost confidence after the disappointing defeat by Italy.

The Italians are on top of Group A2 with six points out of six after beating Israel 2-1 on Monday.

France and Belgium have three points apiece, while Israel are bottom without a point.

The next matches are in October, including Italy playing Belgium in Rome, and Israel meeting France on neutral territory in Budapest.


Ronaldo scores late winner as a substitute for Portugal as 10-man Spain overpower Switzerland

Updated 09 September 2024
Follow

Ronaldo scores late winner as a substitute for Portugal as 10-man Spain overpower Switzerland

  • Ronaldo failed to score at all in five games at the recent European Championship, but Portugal coach Robert Martinez has kept faith with the country’s greatest ever player
  • Fabian Ruiz scored twice for Spain in their 4-1 win at Switzerland, with the recently crowned European champions emerging victorious despite playing the majority of the game with only 10 men

LONDON: Cristiano Ronaldo is showing just why Portugal are persisting with him at the age of 39.

Make that a record-extending 132 international goals for the five-time world player of the year after Ronaldo came on as a halftime substitute and slotted home an 88th-minute winner for Portugal in their 2-1 victory over Scotland in the Nations League on Sunday.

Minutes earlier, Ronaldo had struck both posts within a matter of seconds. Indeed, he was an ever-present danger in Lisbon, demonstrating he is far from finished as a force in international soccer — especially against the likes of a struggling Scotland.

Ronaldo failed to score at all in five games at the recent European Championship, but Portugal coach Robert Martinez has kept faith with the country’s greatest ever player and is reaping the rewards.

On Thursday, Ronaldo scored his 900th career goal — spanning games for club and country — in a 2-1 win over Croatia.

The quest for 1,000 began three days later and he didn’t disappoint, despite only playing one half.

In stoppage time, a spectator got on the field and attempted to get a selfie with Ronaldo, but was stopped by security. That happened repeatedly at Euro 2024.

Scotland went ahead through Scott McTominay in the seventh minute before an equalizer from the edge of the area by Bruno Fernandes in the 54th.

Enduring Modric

Luka Modric turns 39 on Monday but, like Ronaldo, remains as integral as ever for his country.

The Real Madrid midfielder again demonstrated his enduring quality by clipping home an exquisite free kick from the edge of the box in Croatia’s 1-0 win over Poland.

It was Modric’s 27th goal in 180 appearances for his country, which left him tied with former Spain defender Sergio Ramos as the second highest-capped European players in men’s international soccer — only behind Ronaldo with 214.

Robert Lewandowski, another veteran at age 36, hit the goal frame for Poland, who beat Scotland 3-2 in the first round of Nations League group games on Thursday.

Ruiz shines for Spain

Fabian Ruiz scored twice for Spain in their 4-1 win at Switzerland, with the recently crowned European champions emerging victorious despite playing the majority of the game with only 10 men.

Center back Robin Le Normand was shown a straight red card in the 20th minute for bringing down Breel Embolo as the last man, by which time Spain was leading 2-0 thanks to Joselu’s header from Lamine Yamal’s cross in the fourth minute and Ruiz’s goal in the 13th after Nico Williams’ shot was saved.

Zeki Amdouni pulled a goal back for the Swiss before halftime but substitute Ferran Torres set up Ruiz for his second goal then scored himself to clinch Spain’s first win of its Nations League title defense. The team drew 0-0 at Serbia on Thursday.

Eriksson tribute

Swedish soccer fans paid tribute to one of the country’s most famous coaches — and then celebrated the further blossoming of the team’s new strikeforce.

There was a minute’s silence before Sweden’s home match with Estonia in honor of Sven-Goran Eriksson, who died on Aug. 26 after battling cancer. An image of Eriksson was shown on the big screens in the Strawberry Arena just outside Stockholm.

Sweden won 3-0, with Viktor Gyokeres — with two goals — and Alexander Isak scoring. They also each scored in a 3-1 win in Azerbaijan on Thursday, with the Swedes showing improved form after missing out on qualification for both the World Cup in 2022 and this year’s Euros.

There was another Scandinavian win as Denmark beat Serbia 2-0 thanks to goals by Albert Gronbaek and Yussuf Poulsen.