Sven-Goran Eriksson dominated the front and back pages on Friday after the Football Association said he had no case to answer over his affair with Faria Alam. However, the FA came in for heavy criticism following their decision to stick with the England manager.
Under the headline 'Teflon Man', the Daily Express says "Eriksson was found not guilty of gross misconduct - but it is a verdict that will rob the Swede of much of his credibility after having been revealed as a liability to the game's organisers."
It adds: "He will have required all his super-cool demeanour to have come to terms with the realisation that the FA has little or no faith in him as England coach."
The Sun believes that although Eriksson has survived for now, he will be sacked if England lose either of the World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Poland next month.
 |  No case to answer....absolutely right. Thank you for a little piece of sanity |
"He is now on borrowed time. The FA is gunning for him and he will be sacked the moment his England team slips up on the field."
The Daily Mail is also blunt about the future prospects for Eriksson and says the FA was concerned about paying off the Swede if they sacked him.
"It was a hollow victory. The England coach now knows that while he can afford to conduct his private life more or less as he chooses, there will be no margin for error in his handling of the national football team.
"The FA board is clearly running scared of their �4m-a-year manager and what it might have cost them to try to get rid of him over the Fariagate affair."
The Daily Telegraph takes a slightly different line, arguing that FA chairman Geoff Thompson's job is now far from safe.
"Eriksson was cleared of misleading his FA employers but the position of Thompson was made untenable.
"The FA's board questioned the Yorkshireman's ability to lead the organisation and appointed two heavyweight members to help him. Brutal."
The Guardian agrees, stating that Thompson's position is now undermined.
"Despite the deep-seated dissatisfaction at Thompson's handling of the fallout from the affairs conducted by Eriksson and Mark Palios, the board concluded that it would do the FA further damage to try and unseat him."
| The FA's job has always been to protect the national game. Yesterday we saw, with the profound help of Ms Faria Alam, the extent of their failure |
The Daily Star criticises the FA for its handling of the situation and the lengths they took to keep Thursday's top-level meeting a secret.
"London is currently on a huge security alert and here we had a group of faceless football men being protected because they are scared of their own shadow."
The Daily Mirror believes that the FA was right not to sack Eriksson as they feel he did nothing wrong.
"Time for the puritans and righteous who have never sinned to go home and put back on their hair shirt. No case to answer....absolutely right. Thank you for a little piece of sanity."
The Independent ended their coverage with a stinging rebuke for those at Soho Square.
"The FA's job has always been to protect the national game. Yesterday we saw, with the profound help of Ms Faria Alam, the extent of their failure."
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
