England take their football/soccer very seriously indeed. They recently appointed a new manager for the national team, Steve McClaren, who it’s fair to say wasn’t a popular appointment – among the fans or the media – and their 2-0 loss during the week to Croatia has created something of a firestorm among the tabloid media.

No suprise then perhaps that McClaren was the lead story in the sports section of Saturday’s edition of the UK Daily Mail, except the subject of the story was something of a surprise.  The headline read:

McClaren Fired!

Then the sub-head explained he had been fired by his PR advisor (not his employer). You know things are getting bad when the flack jumps ship – and when it’s the lead story.  Of course the fact that the flack in question is one Max Clifford explains a lot…

 

“In the early stages Steve certainly seemed to understand my advice and I think a lot of the things I talked about, he would like to have done but it just didn’t materialise.

“The relationship now is virtually non-existent. If I can’t take part and I can’t contribute then there is no point in me staying involved. What was made very clear to me in the beginning was that the FA were very unhappy with my appointment.”

PS: It appears Mr. McClaren’s job is fairly safe.  The ruling body of English football are still paying £13,000 per day compensation to their previous manager so it’s felt that they are committed to avoiding having to pay McClaren the £10 million compensation they’d have to if they fired him.  I want one of those jobs.

tags: Max Clifford, McClaren, PR