The wally with the lolly: Outrage from humiliated fans as McClaren gets £2.5m after 18 months of failure

Steve McClaren, the manager who masterminded his team's failure to qualify for Euro 2008, walked away with a £2.5million payoff after being sacked by the Football Association.

He had refused to resign immediately after England's defeat against Croatia on Wednesday, which led to him being dubbed the "wally with the brolly" as he watched from beneath an umbrella to protect his thinning hair.

Instead he waited for the FA to fire him, confident in the knowledge that by forcing its hand he would trouser a year's salary.

He now plans a sunshine break with wife Kathryn at a holiday home he has bought in the Caribbean.

Scroll down for more...

McClaren, 46, was telephoned by FA chief executive Brian Barwick at 10.30am and told he had been fired.

The man nicknamed "McClown" and "Sven Lite" after succeeding another expensive failure, Sven Goran Eriksson, seemed anything but contrite as he faced a press conference hours later.

The former Middlesbrough manager said he did not resign after England's humiliating defeat because he had "never walked away from anything".

But cynics suggested his refusal to go was a ploy to guarantee compensation from a contract not due to end until 2010.

McClaren had only 18 games in charge, the shortest tenure of any manager in English football history. His assistant Terry Venables was also sacked and is similarly likely to receive compensation.

The money received by McClaren comes after his predecessor Eriksson earned £25million from the FA for his five-and-a-half-year reign as manager.

Amazingly the terms of Eriksson's contract saw him leave his post after the World Cup last summer but still receive £14,000 a day until January 2007.

After that he continued to pocket £7,000 a day from the FA until he signed a contract to become manager of Manchester City.

Announcing McClaren's sacking the FA's chairman, Geoff Thompson, said the board had ordered a "root and branch" review of the arrangements around the senior team, adding: "Like every England fan, we are all bitterly disappointed that we have failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

"I know that Steve feels that disappointment more than anyone."

Brian Barwick said: "I would like to apologise to the fans personally. I'm in this job because I care about football and football fans and football teams. I understand that we have let them down and I apologise for that."

However, others within the game questioned whether the FA itself is in need of being overhauled after a litany of failure by England teams in World Cup and European competitions.

One former England international told the Daily Mail: "The FA is run by blokes in blazers who know little or nothing about the game.

"They are amateurs but they run a cosy little club and vote for each other so the system at FA headquarters will never change.

"And the fact they paid McClaren to fail says it all."

Scroll down for more...

Former England international Alan Mullery told the Daily Mail: "When I left clubs I managed I never had a compensation clause like the FA seems to offer. I walked away with nothing."

Soccer pundit and former Match of the Day host Jimmy Hill, 79, was critical of Barwick, a former head of sport at both the BBC and ITV.

He said: "I don't want to be uncharitable to Brian but I have spent 60 years in the game and I do not think there would be an argument that I could do the job better.

"Instead we have a former TV executive at the helm and I have to say such a compensation payment for failure is just illogical."

Hundreds of angry fans contacted the Mail to register their disgust at McClaren's payoff. Helen Collins, from London, said: "£2.5 million as a payoff - I would be happy to manage England's football team and make a hash of it for that money."

Richard Kay, from Wakefield, added: "When do the FA get sacked?"

An FA spokesman refused to discuss the terms of McClaren's departure, adding: "We would never discuss an individual's salary.

"Any final payment has not been finalised yet and in terms of actual figures we cannot and will not discuss them."

Euro 2008 is the first major tournament for which England have failed to qualify since the 1994 World Cup.

McClaren lives in the village of Yarm on Teesside with Kathryn, 42, and their three sons.

Last year he admitted betraying his wife at a series of hotel trysts with a pretty secretary during a three-month affair.

When details of the relationship broke in April, McClaren maintained that it happened during a "trial separation".

Yesterday he declared that his sacking was "one of the saddest days" of his career, adding: "I was honoured to be the England head coach and for 18 months I've enjoyed every minute.

"It is a sad day to have been relieved of my duties but I understand the decision of the FA."

"I said at the beginning it was my responsibility, I would live and die by results and results haven't gone my way."

Last night bookmaker William Hill made former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho 4/1 favourite to succeed McClaren ahead of Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill at 5/1 and current Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari at 7/1.