Eriksson to lead England football

LONDON, England -- Sweden's Sven Goran Eriksson has been made the English football team coach -- the first non-Englishman to hold the job.

Eriksson, currently the coach of Italian glamour club Lazio, will take up a five-year contract on July 1, 2001 with the aim of taking a competitive England side to the 2006 World Cup.

England's Football Association Chief Executive Adam Crozier said on Tuesday the appointment was a unanimous choice among selectors and no other candidate had been approached.

Earlier Lazio confirmed a "saddened" Eriksson had caught the players and board by surprise when he told them he was taking the English national job.

"He is full of pride in becoming the first foreign manager of the England team and I understand this," Lazio's president Sergio Cragnotti said.

Eriksson declined to speak to reporters at the end of team training at Lazio's Formello training outside Rome on Tuesday.

But Cragnotti, speaking to reporters outside his home, seemed to suggest the Rome-based club was already on the lookout for Eriksson's replacement.

Cragnotti, who attributed Eriksson's decision to a need for "new challenges and new ambitions" said the club needed a manager of great experience.

Eriksson took Lazio to last year's Italian championship title and the club is one of this season's European Championship favourites.

He also took Benfica to the Champions Cup final in 1990, led Roma to second place in Serie A and Lazio to runners up in the 1998 UEFA Cup before collecting the last Cup Winners Cup title with Lazio in 1999.

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