McClaren Faces Sack After Breakfast

The end of Steve McClaren's disastrous 15-month tenure as England coach job will be sealed at an emergency FA board meeting this morning. The board will assemble at 8.30am at Soho Square to discuss McClaren's future in the wake of last night's 3-2 defeat.

The 12-man board will be asked to approve his immediate removal and is expected to vote unanimously in favor.

McClaren's departure is likely to be presented as a mutual decision but the coach left the FA with little option but to sack the former Middlesbrough manager after last night insisting that he would not resign.

Asked if he would resign McClaren said: "No I won't. I understand the question but I'm not going to discuss my future. I don't think this is the time so near after a huge disappointment. The feeling that we feel, the letdown for the nation, I'm not discussing my future after this.

"I accept the responsibility. Yeah. Ultimately, I said judge me over the 12 games. We deserve to be where we finish, so we don't deserve to qualify. That's my responsibility."

McClaren's departure, two years before the end of his contract, would cost the FA £2.5m in compensation but the long-term cost of ejection from Euro 2008, the first major tournament England has failed to qualify for since the 1994 World Cup, is harder to quantify.

Chief executive Brian Barwick decided to call the emergency meeting as soon as the final whistle had sounded at a sodden Wembley last night, pulling aside chairman Geoff Thompson and telling him: "Geoffrey, I think we need to have that meeting." One immediate repercussions of the defeat will see McClaren absent from the FA delegation traveling to Durban for the 2010 World Cup draw on Friday. For the second tournament running Barwick will arrive for a draw uncertain who will take charge of the side.

Sven Goran Eriksson attended the qualifying draw for Euro 2008 that England ultimately failed to negotiate last night knowing he would not be in charge.The attempt to take decisive action today should spare the FA days of damaging speculation over McClaren's future, but the fallout from last night's dismal events pose a major challenge to Barwick's leadership of the organization. Having insisted that McClaren was his first choice despite making public overtures to Luis Felipe Scolari Barwick now has to oversee the appointment of a credible successor.

The Wembley pitch also remains a major concern, with the quagmire that greeted the players last night a long way short of international standard.

It is thought Barwick would prefer to oversee the appointment process personally, perhaps in tandem with the new FA chairman whose appointment is expected to be confirmed by the New Year.

There are influential voices on the board who would prefer to see the formation of the committee that approved McClaren.

Whatever decision the board ultimately takes over the appointment's procedure, McClaren will be left with only regrets. "It's a massive pain. Indescribable. It's a huge disappointment because it's a nation. It's the fans here, the people watching back home. We've let them down. That's the biggest disappointment for me. We've let them down."