England fires coach Steve McClaren

LONDON - England fired coach Steve McClaren on Thursday, a day after failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championship by losing at home to Croatia

Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson said McClaren's contract had been terminated with immediate effect, along with that of assistant Terry Venables.
Needing only a draw at Wembley to qualify for Euro 2008, England was beaten 3-2 by Croatia on Wednesday night. Croatia had already qualified, and the other spot from Group E went to Russia.

"This is one of the saddest days of my career," McClaren said. "It's a failure, but I'll learn from that and I'll move on."

It was the first time since the 1994 World Cup that England had failed to qualify for a major championship and first since 1984 that the team will miss the Euros.

"I am a fan like everybody else. I want England to achieve," McClaren said at a news conference. "I'm as disappointed as everybody this morning that we failed to qualify."
McClaren said after the game that he would not be quitting, but the 12-man FA board called an emergency board meeting Thursday morning to decide on his dismissal.

"Qualifying for a major tournament is probably the minimum requirement," FA chief executive Brian Barwick said at a news conference. "I think that Steve thinks that as well. Not qualifying for Euro 2008 comes up short."

Under McClaren, England won nine games, lost five and drew four. His 18-game tenure was the shortest of any full-time England coach.

"Of course we have no divine right to play in major tournaments, but it is quite right that qualification is expected," Thompson said.

"Of course we feel embarrassed," he added. "We expect as a major nation in Europe to qualify for European Championships and World Cups. We're extremely disappointed, like all fans."

The FA itself has come in for scathing criticism, and Barwick took the unusual step of apologizing to the fans for the humiliating failure.

"I care about this passionately," he said. "This hasn't ever been just a job to me. I'm in this job because I care about football and football fans and football teams. Last night was a tough night to take. We don't pass it over and move on. We understand that we have let them down and I apologize for that."

McClaren took over from Sven-Goran Eriksson after last year's World Cup. The former Middlesbrough manager had been the Swede's assistant coach for five years.
When McClaren was appointed, he appeared to be far from the first choice.
Before naming McClaren, the FA had spoken three times to Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. Russia's Guus Hiddink was another leading candidate. Both men are taking their teams to Euro 2008.

Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, Hiddink, Scolari, Italy's World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi, Aston Villa's Martin O'Neill and former Real Madrid manager Fabio Capello are among the names considered as possible replacements for McClaren.
"Me to coach England? It would be a challenge, a beautiful test to overcome," Capello said.
Because England won't be playing at the Euro 2008 tournament and has nothing but friendlies until qualifying for the 2010 World Cup starts next season, there is no rush for the FA to appoint anyone.

Barwick has been tasked with presenting the FA Board with a recommendation for McClaren's successor.

"The recruitment process for the new coach begins now and we will do everything to get the right man for the job," Barwick said. "It will be done differently. We've got to learn lessons from the way we did it."

McClaren's team failed to qualify from what was not a particularly tough group.
England lost both its games to Croatia, surrendered a lead in Moscow and fell 2-1 to the Russians, and was held 0-0 at home by Macedonia and 0-0 away by Israel.

Against Croatia on Wednesday, McClaren dropped David Beckham to the substitutes' bench and started the inexperienced Scott Carson in goal instead of Paul Robinson, who wasn't even among the reserves.

After Croatia raced to a 2-0 lead in the first half, Beckham came on as a second-half substitute for his 99th appearance and provided a cross for Peter Crouch to score an equalizer for 2-2. That would have put England through, but Mladen Petric scored a late winner.
Carson was badly at fault for Croatia's first goal, failing to get his hands behind a routine shot from Niko Kranjcar that bounced through his arms.

Hamilton not involved in team-mate decision

''It's a team decision and nothing to do with me''

Lewis Hamilton on Monday said he was not involved in the selection of his McLaren team-mate for next season.

The 22-year-old rookie was recently quoted as musing on a likely trio to replace Fernando Alonso next year, but in London he clarified that he will not actually have any input into selecting the successful nominee.

"It's a team decision and nothing to do with me," Hamilton, speaking with reporters in the British capital as he launched his first biography entitled 'My Story', insisted.

"I don't need to get involved. I'm going to keep quiet. I have my own seat. The car will be built around me and whoever joins," he added.

Lewis Hamilton on Monday said he was not involved in the selection of his McLaren team-mate for next season.

The 22-year-old rookie was recently quoted as musing on a likely trio to replace Fernando Alonso next year, but in London he clarified that he will not actually have any input into selecting the successful nominee.

"It's a team decision and nothing to do with me," Hamilton, speaking with reporters in the British capital as he launched his first biography entitled 'My Story', insisted.

"I don't need to get involved. I'm going to keep quiet. I have my own seat. The car will be built around me and whoever joins," he added.

Heartbreaking end to season for Rossi “I have no words”

Valentino Rossi's hopes of securing the runner-up spot in the championship ended in the unluckiest of fashions today, when a technical issue brought the injured Italian's race to a premature end in Valencia.
His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also had a disappointing race and finished 13th in his final race for the Factory Team, after starting from 15th. Having broken three bones in his hand after crashing in qualifying yesterday, Rossi bravely decided to race, his 192nd consecutive start since his 125cc debut in 2006. Forced to start from 17th after completing only five laps in qualifying, he needed to finish 15th or higher in order to secure second place in the championship from Pedrosa, who started on pole. By mid-race distance he had gone one better, having passed Anthony West, Shinya Nakano and Makoto Tamada to take 14th. However on lap 18 Rossi ran into unexpected problems with his bike and he was forced to retire, only able to look on as Pedrosa went on to win the race and take the championship runner-up spot by just one point.
Edwards meanwhile had made up three places from his starting position to 12th, but was limited by a lack of grip and unable to make any headway to the next group of riders. A late battle with Carlos Checa however, who was riding in his last MotoGP race, went the way of the Spaniard and Edwards was forced to settle for 13th across the line and ninth place in the championship on his Fiat Yamaha farewell.

Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, commented after the race, “This final race has been a very disappointing end to a long and hard season. I feel very sorry that our machine failed Valentino today and denied him the second place in the championship that he surely deserved. His ride today with a broken hand showed his fighting spirit and his passion for racing. Colin's last race for the Yamaha Factory Team was also a disappointing end to his season. I would like to anyway thank Colin for his commitment to Yamaha and for his great teamwork during the last three years. We also look forward to having him in the Yamaha family as our next-door neighbour in 2008. Last but not least I would like to thank all members of the Factory Team and the Yamaha MotoGP staff for their tireless dedication and commitment all year long. We will now put our full focus on next year. We have a lot of work ahead of us in order to come back stronger and faster and to return to winning ways for the 2008 MotoGP World Championship.”

Colin Edwards
“There's really nothing to say about today so I'll just leave that be! It was my last race with the Factory Team and everyone knows I wanted a better goodbye than this, but there was little I could do today. I'm very thankful to everyone in this team for the last three years, which have without doubt been some of the most memorable of my racing career. A huge thanks to Yamaha, to Michelin and to everyone in the team; it's been great fun. I'm very glad I'm staying with Yamaha and now I'm just looking forward to getting started with the new bike!”
Valentino Rossi
“I have no words. For sure, after today, I can say that it's not just a matter of misfortune. I did everything I could in order to be on the grid today, because I wanted to try and confirm my second place in the championship, which I think I deserved. I was riding very fast, even though my bike was not perfect. When I got into 14th place, I told myself that my task was done, but I was feeling quite good and I wanted to try to pass some more riders. Unfortunately however I felt that I had a problem with my bike and I was forced to come in. Now we are checking the data to understand what happened, because at the moment it's not so clear. I will need 20 days to fix my hand and then I will be back in Jerez to start my winter testing programme. I'd like to thank Claudio Costa and Marco Montanari, as well as everyone at the Clinica Mobile, because they made a great effort with my hand to enable me to race today.” Davide Brivio
“We hoped for a much better end to the season and we would like to say sorry to Valentino because he made a great effort to race with his broken hand. Unfortunately a technical problem stopped him from getting the second place and we're very sad about this. Our engineers are doing everything they can now to understand what happened today, because Valentino felt that he had a problem and that the engine was not working properly. From our first analysis we are not yet sure what the problem was, so we have decided to send the engine back to Japan for further investigation. Colin was only able to finish 13th and it's a shame also that he couldn't finish the season and his Factory Team career on a better note. We're glad however that he's staying in the Yamaha family and we wish him all the best. It seems that Valencia hasn't been a very lucky track for us over the last couple of years, but what happened today will just give us a stronger motivation for next season. We start testing again this month and we will do everything we can to be at the top of the championship again next year. Thanks to the team and everyone involved; there have been some very difficult moments this year but we will try again in 2008.”