Big Sam tells Sky Sports he’s “very hurt” and only attended meeting to help an old friend

Sam Allardyce's 67-day reign as England manager is over.

A matter of hours after it was confirmed that his contract with the FA had been terminated, Allardyce has contacted Sky Sports News HQ to offer an explanation as to why he attended the meeting with the undercover reporters that he had mistakenly believed were representatives of a Far East Company. Joining host Mike Wedderburn in the studio, reporter Kaveh Solhekol explained that Allardyce had contacted Sky Sports News on Wednesday morning. Having made it clear that he was "very hurt" at losing his job, the 61-year-old acknowledged that attending the meeting had been a "huge misjudgement" on his part. According to Solhekol, Allardyce also explained that he had agreed to go to the meeting to help long-term friend, Scott McGarvey. McGarvey, an agent that is said to have known the now ex-England manager for over 20 years, is said to have been "desperate" to secure a job working for the fictitious businessmen, and helped set up the meeting between them and Allardyce.

“The big questions everyone is asking, why did he do it?" Solhekol said. "Is he being greedy? Why did he go and have this meeting? Why did he enter talks about earning an extra £400,000 when he is already the highest paid international manager in the world? His explanation for this is all to do with a man called Scott McGarvey, one of the agents that set up the meeting.  “Sam Allardyce says he first and foremost went to this meeting because Scott McGarvey is a person he has known for 20 to 30 years.  “He says he went because he knew Scott McGarvey was desperate to get a job from these people, who turned out to be undercover reporters. They were offering him a job with a salary of around £200,000-a-year and a company car."

Solhekol adds that Allardyce was also aware that he may be offered a contract for public speaking at the meeting, but stresses that his main motivation for attending it was to help his friend. Allardyce will now go on holiday with his family but also indicated that, despite losing his dream job, he did not intend to turn his back on football.