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HomeSportsEngland FA Boss Says Any Wiegman Approach Would Be '100% Rejected'

England FA Boss Says Any Wiegman Approach Would Be ‘100% Rejected’

Any approaches for England manager Sarina Wiegman would be “100% rejected”, says Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham.

Wiegman, appointed in 2021, has led England to the Women’s World Cup final a year after they won Euro 2022.

She is the first coach to take two countries to a World Cup final, having led the Netherlands there in 2019.

“It is not about money. We are very happy with her and feel she is happy,” Bullingham said.

USA manager Vlatko Andonovski is set to step down following their last-16 exit from the World Cup, with Wiegman listed as a potential candidate to replace him.

“We’ve seen lots of rumours, and she is a special talent – we know that. From our side, she’s contracted through until 2025,” said Bullingham.

“She’s doing a great job. We’re obviously huge supporters of her and hopefully she feels the same way. She’s someone we’d like to have with us for a very long time.”

England meet Spain in the final at Stadium Australia in Sydney on Sunday at 11:00 BST, a match which will be shown live on the BBC.

Asked whether there had been discussions with Wiegman over a new contract, Bullingham said: “We’ve always said we’d get to it after a tournament. We had good conversations after the Euros.

“There will be an appropriate time to do it. We’ve got a bit of time. She’ll want to have a decent holiday after this.”

FA women’s technical director Kay Cossington said Wiegman and assistant coach Arjan Veurink have had “a fantastic impact” and have “embraced the England DNA across all of our teams”.

Plans to build a statue of Wiegman outside Wembley Stadium have been looked at by the FA and Brent Council since England’s European triumph.

“We’ve made progress on that and it would be right to have something to commemorate that success outside Wembley. It’s more the whole team,” said Bullingham.

“You have to go through various permissions – we’ve gone through that. The next stage is working on the design.”

Bullingham went on to say Wiegman “could do anything she wants in football” when pressed if she could potentially take over from men’s boss Gareth Southgate.

“Firstly, I think it’s a bit disrespectful to the Lionesses to project it as a step up,” said Bullingham.

“People always say it is ‘the best man for the job’. Why does it have to be a man? Our answer is always ‘it’s the best person for the job’.”

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