Roy Hodgson has been appointed as the new manager of Fulham and been given the unenviable task of keeping the club in the Premier League while also playing a more attractive style of football.

The relegation-threatened club announced the news via a statement on their official website this evening, less than a week after they dismissed Lawrie Sanchez for an abysmal first half to the season.

Hodgson will start his new job on Sunday with Ray Lewington, the Fulham caretaker manager, and Billy McKinlay, his assistant, keeping their roles for the Premier League match at Birmingham City tomorrow.

"I am delighted to have been offered this opportunity with Fulham," Hodgson said in a statement. "After long talks with the chairman and the board, I am convinced that we can take the club to a new level.

"I am determined that we will overcome the current position, which I understand will be a challenge, but one that I will relish. I am very much looking forward to training with the team on Sunday, and will be at St Andrews tomorrow.”

Fulham slipped to third from bottom in the league after their 5-1 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Boxing Day and had won only two Premier League matches this season before Sanchez was sacked on December 21.

Mohammed Al Fayed, the Fulham chairman, today made a barely veiled criticism of Sanchez's direct style of play, saying that he believed Hodgson would "return Fulham to its tradition of playing attractive passing football".

"Roy has immense experience in all areas of football and can drive this club forward for the long term," Al Fayed said in his statement. "My commitment to this club has never dwindled and I am more than ever determined that we have the right man to turn round our current predicament and build for a successful future.”

John Collins was the bookmakers' favourite to replace Sanchez, possibly in a management team with Terry Venables, though there were reports the club wanted a coach with more experience than the former Hibernian manager.

Sanchez spent heavily in the summer but Al Fayed is expected to supply Hodgson with a sizeable transfer kitty to spend during the January transfer window to ensure the club avoid relegation.

Hodgson quit as manager of Finland last month after they only narrowly failed to make it the finals of a major tournament for the first time, finishing third in their Euro 2008 qualification group behind Poland and Portugal.

He had previously led Switzerland to the finals of the 1994 World Cup and the 1996 European Championships, achievements that prompted Inter Milan to appoint him as their manager in 1995.

He steered the Italian giants to the final of the 1997 Uefa Cup but left soon afterwards to join Blackburn Rovers, helping them to qualify for the Uefa Cup before he was sacked in his second season.

After that, he had stints in charge of Inter Milan, FC Copenhagen, Grasshoppers, Udinese and the United Arab Emirates before he accepted the Finland job in 1996.

A former Crystal Palace player who spent several years playing in English non-league football, Hodgson established his reputation as a coach while in charge of the Swedish clubs, Obrebro SK and Malmo FF, in the 1980s.