Eriksson defends record

Sven-Goran Eriksson came out fighting today as he defended his right to earn more than £4m (€5.96m) a year and challenged behind-the-scenes critics on the Football Association board to confront him face to face.

He also talked up his record as England coach so far, describing the Euro 2004 quarter-final defeat by Portugal on penalties as “unlucky” and insisting that only bad results would force him out of his post.

Eriksson has clearly been angered by the controversy which has raged at the FA in the wake of his affair with secretary Faria Alam.

Indeed, he described the events of the past few weeks as a “soap opera” and a “mess”, criticising the “sick interest” in his personal life.

However, he made it clear that he “never” considered stepping down from his post, especially after receiving support from David Beckham and fellow England players.

“I want to go on working for this organisation. I want to go on working with the England team. I want to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and to do a better tournament than in the past two tournaments,” he declared.

“I have always hoped in this country that I am judged on football results and that is it. I can quit if we don’t qualify for the World Cup but that is football.”

Eriksson’s first test comes in next week’s friendly against Ukraine in Newcastle, although his real challenges are the first two World Cup qualifiers away to Austria and Poland early next month.

Failure to secure at least three points from those two games would provide extra ammunition to those members of the FA board who still seem to have reservations about him as England coach.

But while one FA board member, Dave Henson, put his name to concerns about Eriksson’s conduct in his private life, other critics have hidden behind the protection of being ‘unidentified sources’ in off-the-record briefings.

The England coach insisted: “Unnamed board members? I could not care less about that. If someone has something to tell me then they should tell me [to my face].

“If I have an opinion about a person, I prefer to go to that person and tell them whatever it is. No one in this building [the FA’s Soho Square headquarters] or on the board has ever told me anything about that.”

The reservations about Eriksson are understood to stem from his salary rise to more than £4m (€5.96m) a year only a few months before he failed to take England past the quarter-finals of a second consecutive major tournament.

But the Swede, who gained that rise after resisting overtures from Chelsea, insisted: “I can’t do anything about it. I will not quit the job for that reason, I will not ask for less money.

“I don’t know if I am paid too much or not. I know what other managers are earning and I don’t think I am the highest-paid manager in the world. In fact, I know that I am not.

“If it is too much or not, that is up to other people to judge. But I have never understood in this job why you are not judged as other football managers are.

“I have never read a word about how much Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi, Jose Mourinho or Alex Ferguson earn. But in this job, I see it every day.

“If it is the biggest job, then it should be the best paid, shouldn’t it?”

As for the standard of England’s Euro 2004 displays, when they were accused of being too defensive, especially when trying to hang onto a narrow lead, Eriksson also defended his reputation.

“To push a defence up, you have to keep the ball. When Wayne Rooney went out, we struggled to do that very much. When tiredness comes, we can’t keep the ball and we start to defend deeper and deeper,” he insisted.

“You can always do better. You should always try to learn from games, especially when you lose, but I think we were unlucky. Against Portugal, we scored a goal that was not allowed but I think it was a goal.”