A worldwide search for a new England head coach was under way last night after Steve McClaren was sacked and consigned to the record books as the least successful football manager in the country’s 135-year international history.

McClaren’s lawyers were negotiating with his former employers at the Football Association last night, but it is thought he will collect a year’s salary – £2.5 million – as compensation for failing to qualify for next year’s European Championships.

His fate was sealed by a 3-2 defeat to Croatia in their final qualifying match at Wembley on Wednesday night, after which the players were booed off the pitch. Not since 1994 have England failed to qualify for a major tournament.

With the FA set to lose up to £10 million from England’s absence from next summer’s festival of football in Austria and Switzerland, the FA’s patience was exhausted by the end of Wednesday evening and it effectively resolved to dismiss McClaren about an hour after the final whistle. The decision was ratified by an emergency board meeting at the FA’s Soho Square headquarters yesterday morning, with Brian Barwick, its chief executive, explaining the rationale before offering a public apology to the fans.

Expert View

The faults that lie deep within the nation's football will not be cured simply by handing Steve McClaren his P45

Martin Samuel

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BACKGROUND

• O’Neill rules himself out of running

• Same old routine for Barwick and Co

• £2.5m for worst English manager

• English game paralysed by fear of the unknown

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• Defeat puts paid to hopes of £2bn bonanza

• McClaren's epitaph: ‘Worse than Graham Taylor’

• Former coach faces fight to rebuild reputation

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• From 1 to 11: why number was up for England

• Beckham is the blueprint by which to rebuild national game

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• Carson hoping to bounce back

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“It was a board decision,” he said. “It was unanimous. In the end qualifying for a major tournament is the minimum requirement. Steve himself thinks like that. I would like to apologise to the fans.”

McClaren’s sacking just 18 months into a four-year contract is a huge source of personal embarrassment to Mr Barwick, who staked his reputation on the success of the former Middlesbrough manager when he declared him as his first choice candidate on his appointment in May last year.

In reality McClaren was anything but, as Mr Barwick first offered the job to Luis Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian in charge of Portugal’s national team, after his initial preference for Martin O’Neill, now the Aston Villa manager, was overruled by other members of the FA Board. After being widely ridiculed for such a bureaucratic head-hunting procedure at the time, the FA has pledged to do things differently as it attempts to identify McClaren’s successor, with Mr Barwick given personal responsibility for finding the right man.

Unlike two years ago, Mr Barwick will not be under pressure to find an English candidate, which could bring such stars of the game as José Mourinho, the former Chelsea manager, and Jürgen Klinsmann, the former Tottenham Hotspur striker who led Germany to the World Cup semi-finals last year, into contention. Both men are available, although the FA does not have to rush as England do not have another fixture until a friendly against Switzerland in February.

“It will be done differently,” Mr Barwick said. “It would be wrong not to learn the lessons of last time. I think we’ve all been fairly critical in the past of the process. We’ve got to learn lessons from the way we did it. We won’t just move on. We understand we have let the fans down and will look at how we can make things better. Nationality doesn’t necessarily have to be an issue.”

McClaren was widely agreed to be the best English qualified candidate for the job, though his record does not say much for the dwindling band of domestic managers aspiring to work at the top level.

Of his 18 matches in charge, England won nine and lost five, with his loss percentage of 28 per cent the worst of England’s 11 postwar managers. He said: “You’re judged by results. I said right at the beginning, no matter what or how I portray myself, it’s about results on the field.”

Geoff Thompson, the FA’s usually silent chairman, summed up the unease within the corridors of power by admitting to being embarrassed at the state of the national team. “Of course I feel embarrassed,” Mr Thompson said. “You expect a major nation to qualify, of course. I am embarrassed and disappointed, extremely disappointed, like all fans.”

Highs and lows

England 4 Greece 0 (Aug 2006) A promising start for McClaren

Macedonia 0 England 1 (Sep 2006) Crouch seals three away points in the Euro 2008 qualifier

England 0 Macedonia 0 (Oct 2006) First rumblings of discontent

Croatia 2 England 0 (Oct 2006) Paul Robinson’s embarrassing air-kick crowns a woeful display

England 1 Brazil 1 (Jun 2007) Beckham lays on Terry’s opener

England 1 Germany 2 (Aug 2007) A disappointing friendly

England 3 Israel 0 (Sep 2007) A convincing win

England 3 Russia 0 (Sep 2007) Campaign back on track

England 3 Estonia 0 (Oct 2007) Win gives team the chance to qualify by beating Russia . . .

Russia 2 England 1 (Oct 2007) Rooney scores but Russia hit back

England 2 Croatia 3 (Nov 2007) England out of Euro 2008

Appointed: Aug 1, 2006
Dismissed: Nov 22, 2007

Played 18 Won 9 Drawn 4 Lost 5