ENGLAND are looking for a new manager again after the baggage which Sven-Goran Eriksson's controversial lifestyle collects finally burst the Football Association's patience writes Neil Bonnar

The Swede, like Bobby Robson at the 1990 World Cup and Terry Venables at Euro 1996, goes into his next international tournament knowing it will be his last.

His £4.5 million-a-year England contract, which was due to run to 2008, will now end after this summer's World Cup Finals after the FA were able to negotiate down Eriksson's pay-off to £2.5 million.

The latest revelations in a Sunday newspaper alleging that Eriksson told an undercover reporter that three Premiership managers take illegal payments for conducting transfers was the final straw for the FA.

This latest issue has sent shock waves through football and could spark investigations in the light of Luton Town boss Mike Newell's claims that a bung culture was rife throughout English football.

But Eriksson has not been given the boot for this single situation, but for a series of indiscretions.

It is the equivalent of a footballer who gets himself booked for a number of minor offences.

Just like referee Rob Styles pointed to three parts of the Reebok pitch, where Kevin Davies had committed semi-serious fouls, before showing him the yellow card, the FA might well have pointed to a series of embarrassing and troublesome events involving their international manager as the reason for yesterday's punishment.

Affairs with television celebrity Ulrika Jonsson and FA secretary Faria Alam and pictures of him heading for a meeting with Chelsea owner Roman Abramavic and in a meeting with Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and now indiscreet comments to a fake sheikh from the News of the World.

The FA could live with Eriksson's affairs, meetings with other potential employers and indiscreet comments about England players.

But suggestions that there could be corruption within England's elite football clubs could well have been too much for the FA to stand.

They fell short of giving Eriksson a straight red on Monday for two reasons. Firstly, no-one knows what any impending corruption inquiry will turn up. Secondly, England would be pressing the self-destruct button if they dismissed a man who, during his five-year tenure, has lost just one qualifying game out of 23.