Football
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Ex-FA chief Bernstein defends Roy Hodgson appointment, backs Allardyce

Former Football Association chairman David Bernstein has told the Daily Telegraph he has no regrets over the appointment of Roy Hodgson as England manager and said he views Sam Allardyce as a strong contender to replace him.

Hodgson, who resigned this week, was named England boss in May 2012 after Fabio Capello had resigned in response to the FA stripping John Terry of the captaincy. 

Hodgson, who had been considered for the position for some time, had previously taken Switzerland to the round of 16 at the 1994 World Cup and then overseen qualification for Euro 96, and he had at one stage established the Swiss as the third best team, behind Brazil and Germany, in the FIFA World Ranking.

He had also led Inter Milan to the UEFA Cup final in 1997 and Fulham to the Europa League final in 2010, and further developed his international experience with Finland between 2006 and 2007.

"I believe we ended up with the best candidate," Bernstein said. "Someone who's extremely credible, who had taken Switzerland to third in the world, who had international experience therefore, and who had a good club record.

"I'd in no way go back on the exercise that we did and I'm very sorry and surprised the way it's finished."

Hodgson had led England to the quarterfinals at Euro 2012, losing to finalists Italy on penalties, but they exited the 2014 World Cup without winning a match and saw their Euro 2016 campaign conclude with a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Iceland in the round of 16.

Former England captain Steven Gerrard put England's failure down to a "culture of fear" while outgoing FA chairman Greg Dyke said the players were "scared to death'' in the defeat to Iceland.

Bernstein, who left his role at the FA in 2013, said Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce, who has also received the backing of Jermain Defoe, might be the candidate most capable of focusing the players' minds.

"I'm not saying we should have an English manager but, of the English managers, I actually would go for Sam Allardyce," Bernstein said. "He's a very powerful character.

"I think he's got the personality, the strength, he's a good technical manager, he's very experienced and he's someone who perhaps could imbue confidence.

"Because, clearly among other things, there's a psychological problem with our players, where they seem to get to a stage with international football where they just can't cope, and that's manifest time and time again, year after year, in individual errors which you just wouldn't expect from players."

He cited individual errors that had been costly for England over recent years, such as the Gerrard back header that allowed Luis Suarez to score the winner for Uruguay in the group stage at the 2014 World Cup, as well as "goalkeeping errors," most recently Joe Hart's failure to stop Kolbeinn Sigthorsson's shot in the loss to Iceland.

He added: "A general psychological malaise seems to overcome them. They seem to freeze.

"Someone like Sam Allardyce may have that personality and strength to do a little bit of what has happened to the England rugby team."

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