Sam Allardyce reportedly close to being sacked as England manager following newspaper sting

Sam Allardyce (Getty)

Sam Allardyce is reportedly close to being sacked as the England manager after only one game in charge.

This comes in the wake of a series of allegations made against him which suggested that the 61-year-old has used his position as England manager to negotiate a £400,000 deal while advising undercover reporters, posing as fake businessmen, on how to circumvent rules on player transfers.

According to The Times, FA chairman Greg Clarke and chief executive Martin Glenn were "holding an emergency meeting at Wembley" this morning and are understood to be "extremely disturbed" by the allegations.

Releasing a statement earlier today, Clarke said: "I want all the facts, to hear everything from everyone and make a judgement about what to do.”

"Natural justice requires us to get to the bottom of the issues before we make any decision. It is not appropriate to pre-judge the issue. With things like this you have to take a deep breath."

The Sun has also reported that Allardyce confided in friends after the meeting that he believes he will be sacked.

In a series of clips filmed by the Telegraph as part of the sting, Allardyce explained to the “businessmen” how they could bypass the FA’s regulations on third party player ownership.

The FA banned the practice in 2008 but the England manager appeared to suggest that the rules in place need not stop deals from taking place.

“You can still get around it," Allardyce said.

"I mean obviously the big money’s here.”

Allardyce also agreed to represent the businessmen as an ambassador and stated how he would be willing to travel to Hong Kong and Singapore.

“Your guys set the agenda out of what it would look like,” he said. “Me flying out on - on a day ... landing in Hong Kong or Singapore, staying in this hotel, meeting these people, doing that keynote speech, travelling back either two days later or one day later."

Gareth Southgate, the England under-21 manager, is expected to be called upon to assume a caretaker role for England’s next two World Cup qualifiers if Allardyce is sacked.