Sam Allardyce to begin England reign against Croatia at Wembley

Former West Ham coach will use 1 September match as preparation for World Cup qualifiers

Sam Allardyce now knows who his first opponents will be (Getty)

Sam Allardyce will begin his reign as England manager with a Wembley friendly against Croatia on 1 September.

The 61-year-old, who resigned his position as Sunderland manager in order to succeed Roy Hodgson last week, is due to launch England's World Cup qualification campaign against Slovakia in Bratislava three days later.

But with the former Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn and West Ham manager keen to work with his players before competitive action begins, the Football Association have now secured a friendly against the Croatians as preparation for the Slovakia game.

Allardyce, 61, is set to be officially unveiled by the FA at a press conference at St George's Park on Monday morning.

Paul Clement, the Bayern Munich coach, is set to be appointed as a part-time member of Allardyce's backroom team, with Sammy Lee, who replaced Allardyce as Bolton manager in 2007, also due to be handed a role within the coaching set-up.

Hodgson resigned from his role at the end of June following England's defeat to Iceland in Nice in the last sixteen of the European Championship.

Allardyce's appointment last week followed his looking over for the position a decade ago, when Steve McClaren was handed the role of succeeding Sven-Goran Eriksson after the 2006 World Cup.