FA's mindless miscue: How Allardyce's past indiscretions were ignored

After a little over three months at the England helm, Sam Allardyce has been sacked due to The Telegraph's expose of him engineering ways around the Football Association's and FIFA's third-party ownership rules for financial gain.

"You can still get around it. I mean obviously the big money's here," the Dudley native proclaimed in the video, showing a passion coupled with an unnerving confidence in his ability to sidestep the game's laws.

He was apparently trying to negotiate £400,000 annually for offering tips on circumventing these rules to undercover reporters he believed to be Far East-based investors looking to benefit from football's billion-pound industry - before he'd even overseen a training session as England boss.

It's a Three Lions controversy which leaves the memory of an embattled Steve McClaren appearing helpless under an umbrella in the shade, and makes Sven-Goran Eriksson's sexual promiscuity seem rather trivial. But this fresh fuss came with a warning, one that shows an obstinate mindset to rival Glenn Hoddle's horrific belief in 1999 that disabled people had committed "sins in a previous life."

Allardyce's crooked practices were evident in the past - broadcast into the homes of millions watching the BBC's Panorama programme on football corruption in 2006 - but a decade later, and in the esteemed job as England manager, he failed to be legitimate.

The documentary promptly threw out the resumes of Harry Redknapp, then in charge of Portsmouth, and Allardyce, in his seventh year at Bolton Wanderers, when it came to the England job. For some reason - perhaps desperation following the embarrassing Euro 2016 last-16 exit to Iceland under Roy Hodgson - the FA decided to overlook the now-fired national team gaffer's indiscretions 10 years later.

In Panorama's revelations, substantial evidence was exhibited of Allardyce accepting money from agents through his son Craig, another agent, as an incentive to buy players such as Tal Ben Haim, Hidetoshi Nakata, and Ali Al-Habsi between 2004 and 2006. Peter Harrison, a player representative at the time, claimed that he had been one of these agents who had bribed Allardyce with payments via his son to secure transfer deals.

"I have had lengthy discussions with my lawyers and I am planning to sue the BBC over the false and highly damaging allegations," Allardyce announced a week following Panorama's screening of "Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets."

No such case occurred, meaning the documentary's suggestions of Allardyce's underhanded ways went unchallenged. In the same media address, he went on to speak of his displeasure at the avarice shown by his son and others in the documentary which served to damage his reputation.

"As a result of their greed, my good name has been tarnished by deceit and innuendo," he angrily rumbled on. "As a father, of course, it is painful to watch your son talk tall and exaggerate his influence for financial gain."

As the old adage goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

While this story has dealt a severe blow to Allardyce's hopes of continuing to forge a respectable career in the game, it has also left the FA steeped in controversy over the legitimacy of its hiring practices and also its philosophy due to the relatively speedy hire of Hodgson's replacement. Surely, after yet another disastrous major tournament, it was an appointment that called for meticulous research into each candidate's background - particularly given the hounding that each England manager receives from the country's media - and a complete reassessment of the practices at St George's Park.

It was also an investigation by The Telegraph that was entirely necessary given Allardyce's yearly salary of £3 million, plus bonuses, and the revered post he held - particularly in a country as passionate for the game as England.

The publication's probe isn't done here either, with findings of Premier League stars betting on the outcome of matches their involved in, and an assistant of a storied club involved in a £5,000 bribe, expected to be revealed in the coming days.