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Eriksson till 2008

AFP, London
England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson on Sunday ended the uncertainty over his future by announcing that he had agreed to sign a new contract which will keep him in the job up until 2008.
Eriksson, whose previous deal ran till the 2006 World Cup, admitted he had been effectively bounced into the extension after being photographed on Thursday night at the home of Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.
The London club has refused to give current manager Claudio Ranieri any assurances about his future and had been consistently linked with Eriksson since it was bought last summer by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
"In an ideal world I would have liked to have waited until after Euro 2004," Eriksson told a hastily-arranged press conference at England's training base ahead of Wednesday's friendly against Sweden in Gothenburg.
"But I think that was more or less impossible with all the speculation, so I think that what we did was the best thing.
"When it came out that I met some people, I think the best thing is to try to kill the thing. So here I am and I'm happy."
Eriksson insisted he had never had a formal contract offer from Chelsea or any other club but admitted he had "listened" to inquiries about his future and likely availability and defended his right to do so.
"I was listening. If you have ambition in life, you listen when clubs come to you with (offers of) other jobs. I think that should be allowed, even if you are England manager," Eriksson said.
"But then you have to take a
decision and the decision has been taken."
Mark Palios, the FA Chief Executive who forced Eriksson to declare his intentions, described Eriksson's decision as "great news for England fans and the England team."
"I am not surprised with Sven's record that other clubs want to sign him and we are pleased to have a man whom a lot of top clubs want," Palios said.
The FA supremo would not be drawn on whether the new contract included any get-out clauses which could allow Eriksson to leave before 2008.
Eriksson, who had been linked with Real Madrid and Inter Milan as well as Chelsea, was first offered the new contract at the end of last
year in what was seen as a move by the FA to force him into a decision on his future.
Eriksson made it clear then he was irritated that the offer had become public knowledge but the strains in his relationship with Palios and the rest of the FA hierarchy do not appear to have reached breaking point.
While Eriksson's conduct in off-the-field affairs has been widely questioned, his performance as England coach is pretty much beyond reproach.
Having inherited a side in chaos after the resignation of Kevin Keegan at the end of 2000, he quickly turned England's fortunes around in the qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup.
England went on to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament where their defeat to Brazil remains Eriksson's only loss in a competitive international.
The Swede has also forged a close bond with the players, notably captain David Beckham, and is popular with England fans, not least because of an unlikely dalliance with a blonde television presenter 20 years younger than him.
He admitted the job came with many frustrations: "It is always difficult to understand that whoever has this job should be a saint, should not earn a lot of money, should not have a private life and should not listen to other possibilities in life."
But Eriksson said those drawbacks were outweighed by the postive side of managing a young English squad with significant potential.
"There are many things which made me take this decision," he said. "One is the team. The team is extremely good. If they are all fit we can do well in the tournament (Euro 2004). Another is the fans. Wherever we go England are well supported and I always get a very good reception from them."
Provided injury-prone players like Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen are fit, England will go into Euro 2004 as one of the favourites.
If he can deliver the country's first major tournament victory since the 1966 World Cup, Eriksson knows his apparent willingness to consider walking out on his job will be quickly forgiven.