LONDON (Reuters) – The English Football Association want manager Gareth Southgate to remain in the job beyond the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham told British media on Friday.
The 50-year-old Southgate has steered England to the last 16 at the European Championships, where they host Germany on Tuesday.
He also led his country to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and a third-place finish in the inaugural 2019 Nations League.
“We would love him to carry on, for sure, beyond this contract,” Bullingham was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. “Gareth knows exactly how we feel about him. He knows we think he’s doing a great job and we’d like him to carry on.
“We’ll get into that formal conversation after this tournament. But if you ask me now, I’d say yes, we’d like him to carry on,” added Bullingham.
“Has he indicated he’d like to do that? We haven’t got into that level of conversation yet. He’s got our unwavering support because we think he’s doing a brilliant job on and off the pitch.”
Former England defender Southgate was given the national team job in 2016 after the departure of Sam Allardyce. He signed a new four-year deal in 2018 to take him through next year’s World Cup but the FA would like him to extend the contract.
“Every game we go into we want to win and we think he gives us the best chance of doing that. It’s easy to say that off the pitch he’s been brilliant, but on the pitch he’s been brilliant as well,” said Bullingham.
“Semi-final in the World Cup, fantastic performance in the Nations League, some absolutely brilliant games. And even in the games where we haven’t quite got what we wanted, there have been extenuating circumstances.”
(Writing by Ken Ferris; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)