Sven-Göran Eriksson

Sven-Göran Eriksson

Sven-Göran Eriksson
Personal information
Full name	Sven-Göran Eriksson
Position(s)	Manager (former Right Back)
Team information
Current team	None
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 4 2006

(IPA pronunciation: [svɛn'jøːrɑn 'eːrɪksɔn], born February 5, 1948) is a Swedish football manager and prominent socialite. Eriksson stepped down from his position as the English national football team manager following England's exit from the 2006 World Cup, though some have suggested he was forced out by the football association after being caught up in a number of scandals during his reign namely the "Fake Sheik" swoop by the News Of The World. On January 31, 2006, Eriksson, who goes by the nickname "Svennis" in Sweden, was awarded the King's Medal (the second highest honour the king can bestow on a Swedish commoner) by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf for his "valuable contributions - nationally and internationally - to the sport of football."

Early life and managerial career

Born in Torsby, in Värmland, Eriksson had an unremarkable playing career in the lower divisions of Swedish football before being forced to retire prematurely due to a knee injury in 1975. After retirement, Eriksson became first a coach, and then manager of Degerfors IF, taking the side from the Third Division to the First Division in three years.

His success with Degerfors attracted the attention of much larger clubs, and Eriksson joined IFK Göteborg in 1979. He won the Swedish Cup in his first season, and a "treble" of League, Cup and UEFA Cup (Göteborg beating Hamburger SV 4-0) in 1982.

Eriksson's European success led to him being head-hunted by Portuguese club SL Benfica, and he had a similarly quick impact there, Benfica winning the Portuguese Championship and finishing runners-up in the UEFA Cup. After a second Championship the following year, Eriksson moved on to Italy, becoming boss of AS Roma. He was not as immediately successful at Roma as he had been before, but he still won a Coppa Italia in 1986.

After a trophyless two years at Fiorentina, Eriksson moved back to Benfica for a second stint in 1989, where he led the team to the final of the European Cup (losing to AC Milan 1-0) in 1990, and another League title in 1991. In 1992 Eriksson returned to Italy to try his luck again, with Sampdoria, but he only managed another Coppa Italia in 1994.

Eriksson finally found major success in Italy when he joined Lazio in 1997 (after controversially reneging on a deal to join English club Blackburn Rovers); with Lazio he won the Coppa Italia in 1998 and 2000, the European Cup Winners' Cup (1999 - the very last tournament), and the Serie A title (the Scudetto) in 2000 — only the second time that the Roman club had won the Italian championship in their history.

Manager of England

Following the resignation of England manager Kevin Keegan after a home loss to Germany in October 2000, the Football Association specifically pursued Eriksson as his replacement. Eriksson initially agreed to take over after his contract with Lazio ended in summer 2001, although in the end he resigned his post at Lazio early, and took over with England in January of that year. Eriksson was the first foreigner to be appointed coach of the England national team, leading to a mixed reception, ranging from surprise and intrigue to bordering on the xenophobic and racist; the Daily Mail columnist Jeff Powell wrote:

"So, the mother country of football, birthplace of the greatest game, has finally gone from the cradle to the shame. We've sold our birthright down the fjord to a nation of seven million skiers and hammer throwers who spend half their lives in darkness."

Eriksson turned round England's bid for qualification for the 2002 World Cup, with several crucial wins over lesser opposition before his first real test, England's rematch with Germany in Munich on September 1, 2001. He passed it with flying colours - England crushing their long-time rivals 5-1. Despite this England still needed a late equaliser at home to Greece to automatically qualify, and England's initially strong performance in the 2002 World Cup (when in a group stage with Nigeria, Argentina and Sweden) finals culminated in a 2-1 quarter finals loss to 10-man Brazil, who subsequently won the tournament.

After the World Cup, Eriksson's England came under more fire after an embarrassing home loss to Australia in a friendly and a draw with Macedonia in a Euro 2004 qualifier. England qualified for Euro 2004 and at the top of their qualification group, but the team's performance was decidedly mixed, and Eriksson was again criticized for England's overly-defensive performances in their first-round loss to France and their quarter-final elimination by hosts Portugal, which England lost on penalties. Eriksson has also been questioned for often making numerous substitutions during friendlies and playing players out of position. His controlled, level-headed approach, in which he seldom loses his cool or exhibits emotional outbursts, also drew speculations as to whether he had enough passion for the game to inspire his players. Despite this, Eriksson still maintains a superb competitive match record.

In February 2005, Eriksson was again criticised, after he played striker Andy Johnson on the right-wing, in a poor-quality friendly against The Netherlands.

Eriksson has also had to weather considerable speculation about his private life, most notably his affairs with the television presenter Ulrika Jonsson[1], and FA secretary Faria Alam [2][3] (in a scandal that led to the resignation of the FA's chief executive, Mark Palios). Despite this, Eriksson has maintained a relationship with long-term partner, Italian property lawyer Nancy Dell'Olio.

On 7 September 2005, Eriksson's England team lost a World Cup qualifying match against Northern Ireland 1-0, the first time that England had lost to that team since 1972. Although it was only Eriksson's first ever defeat in a World Cup or European Championship qualifying match, it brought his position under increased pressure and he was criticised, both by some fans and by BBC commentators, for failing to instill team spirit and tactics into his players. Criticism continued as England scraped a 1-0 victory over Austria in a game which saw David Beckham controversially sent off. Some of this criticism was answered, however, as England put in a much improved performance, despite the absence of David Beckham through suspension and Sol Campbell and Steven Gerrard through injury, in a 2-1 win against Poland.

In 2006, he was recorded saying he would be willing to leave England to manage Aston Villa if England won the World Cup, after being duped into believing that a wealthy Arab would buy the club and wanted him as manager. The wealthy "Arab" was in fact the "Fake Sheikh", an undercover News of the World reporter. Eriksson allegedly claimed that he could buy David Beckham and commented on the club careers of other senior England players such as Michael Owen.

On January 23, the Football Association announced that Eriksson would leave his job after the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and it was thought that the News of the World allegations played a part in this decision. This was later denied by both parties with Eriksson explaining that there was a prior arrangement to terminate his contract immediately after the World Cup. Following a lengthy period of public and media speculation as to his successor the FA later announced that Steve McClaren, Eriksson's assistant, would take over the reins after the World Cup.

The week before England's first game in Germany, England beat Hungary 3-1 and Jamaica 6-0 at home.

England were unbeaten after the group stage of the tournament, with wins against Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, followed by a draw against Sweden. The manner of these results were considered to be far from satisfactory. Eriksson attracted further negative media attention as a consequence.

A David Beckham trademark free kick was enough to see Eriksson's England past Ecuador in a lacklustre 1-0 encounter. However, Eriksson once again fell to nemesis Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portugal. They defeated England 3-1 on penalties with the score 0-0 after extra time, with Beckham lost to injury and Wayne Rooney sent off for stamping. The result was Eriksson's third successive exit in a major tournament quarter-final.

Criticism

Many observers have criticised Eriksson's professional judgement during his England career for both his football related decisions, and for an approach to his sexual life that could only have a detrimental effect on the working environment for himself and his co-workers. Among the more prominent notes of criticism were:

His seeming inability to get his teams to play in a positive way after taking the lead in a match. This remained starkly evident in each of the group games of his final tournament in charge of the England team - the 2006 World Cup.

Playing players out of position and making numerous substitutions during friendlies to the extent of squandering the opportunity that said matches are supposed to provide to establish a team pattern.

Choosing unbalanced squads that are improperly structured to allow for the unpredictable stresses placed on a team, through injury and suspension, of tournament play. By way of example, in 2006 he took the inexperienced 17-year old Theo Walcott to the World Cup (who had never played first team football for his club), but then showed insufficient confidence in the player to actually use him despite points in the tournament when all other strikers were either injured, suspended, or one yellow card away from suspension. The injudicious nature of this decision was underlined when Michael Owen was injured against Sweden, meaning that both Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch were forced to play, and risk suspension for the next round, in a game that ought to have allowed for the resting of such players. Had one or more of Darren Bent, Andy Johnson, and/or Jermaine Defoe been included in the squad it is impossible to think that they would not have played in such circumstances. Thereafter, Wayne Rooney was forced to play as a lone striker against Ecuador, despite only just having returned from injury. With suspension loming for Rooney, had England won their shootout against Portugal it is difficult to conceive of quite what formation they might have played in the semi-final. Again, in such circumstance one or more of Bent, Defoe or Johnson, had they been in the squad, would have had every likelihood of playing from the start.

Sven's social habits and his apparent adoration of "celebrity" generally in the wider world, be it Ulrika Jonson or the Blair's, seemed, consciously or not, to influence his football decision making also. As such, players that had reached the status of prominent celebrities beyond the football world, such as David Beckham, Michael Owen, and Wayne Rooney, were perceived to be untouchable under the Sven regime, regardless of how badly they might play, or how badly injured and physically unprepared they might be, or how poor a job they might do in a given role as captain or penalty taker.

Eriksson's loyalty was questioned on two occasions. First he was photographed outside the house of Chelsea FC chief executive Peter Kenyon, prompting speculation that he would replace Claudio Ranieri. Then he was caught out by News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood, who duped him into admitting interest in managing Aston Villa.

Eriksson has also had to weather considerable speculation about his private life, most notably his affairs with Ulrika Jonsson [4], and Faria Alam [5][6]

Notable feats as England manager

Despite encountering no small amount of criticism during his time as England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson's time in the post was notable for the following reasons :

• 67 matches spanning over 5 years with only 5 competitive losses (3 inside 90 mins). This record is only beaten by Sir Alf Ramsey and Glenn Hoddle, excluding Caretaker managers.
• He never lost a competitive match by more than 1 goal.
• He is the only England manager in post for 3 or more major tournaments not to fail to qualify for any (each time qualifying without the need for playoffs). Of course, both the European Championships and World Cup now admit twice as many teams as they once did, making the job of qualifying approximately half as difficult for European countries.
• He took England to their first European Championship quarter finals on foreign soil since 1972 - their third ever.
• The 5-1 defeat of Germany on September 1st 2001, will probably rank as Sven's most significant single game in charge, as well as his point of highest popularity. It remains Germany's largest competitive home defeat and the best England result against probably their biggest rival. England had never previously beaten Germany in a competitive match in Germany and had not beaten them at all in the World Cup competition since 1966. Following the defeat, the host of popular sports comedy quiz They Think It's All Over unveiled an icon-style picture of Sven, comicly depicting him as a saint-like figure.
• England were ranked as a top ten team by FIFA for the vast majority of Sven's time as manager. Between 1975 and 2000 they were rarely in the top ten and often fell below 20.

Despite all this, initial reactions to Eriksson's departure following the 2006 World Cup, in the media at least, generally focused on England's failure to progress past the quarter-finals of any major tournament, the manner of their exit in 2006 and the vast amount of money paid to him by the FA compared to other international managers. Eriksson's supporters cite the fact that in the 56 years since entering their first major tournament, England have only twice won major tournament quarter finals on foreign soil. Both being in Italy in the 1968 Euro and 1990 World Cup.

External links

• Official profile on TheFA.com