One of the influential men who will pick the next England manager, Premier League chairman Dave Richards, wants Sven-Goran Eriksson’s successor to be British.

Richards, Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick and international committee chairman Noel White will present a list of candidates for the job to a full FA board meeting on February 27. Eriksson will quit after this summer’s World Cup in Germany, and the views of Richards would appear to rule out Dutchman Guus Hiddink, but tellingly not former Northern Irish captain Martin O’Neill.

“I do believe it’s time for a British manager - somebody who understands our passion, belief and commitment to the game,” Richards told The Sun. “For me, there’s no distinction between English and British. We are the biggest nation in the world that plays this game and we want someone who can really move us on.”

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 3:40 pm and is filed under International Football - England. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.