England will reject any approach for Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman from rival countries amid reported interest from the United States, the Football Association’s CEO Mark Bullingham said on Thursday.
Wiegman has guided England to the World Cup final, where they’ll face Spain on Sunday.
It’s her fourth major tournament final on the bounce, having won the 2017 Euros with the Netherlands, taken them to the 2019 World Cup final and then won the Euros last summer with England.
It’s an incredible record, and the FA are keen to sit down with Wiegman after this tournament to see if she wants to extend her contract beyond the current deal which lasts through to 2025.
USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski has reportedly dumped his job and the FA is braced for interest in Wiegman, but says it will rebuff any approach for her.
“We’ve seen lots of rumours, and look, she is a special talent,” Bullingham said. “We know that. From our side, she’s obviously contracted through until 2025. We think she’s doing a great job.
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“We’re obviously huge supporters of her and I think hopefully she feels the same way. So from our side, she’s someone we’d like to have with us for a very long time.”
When asked if they’d reject any approach for Wiegman, Bullingham said, “Yup, 100%.”
He added: “It is not about money. We are very, very happy with her and we feel she is happy.”
Wiegman’s contract is up in 2025 after the next Euros and Bullingham will sit down with the Lionesses manager after the World Cup to look at extending that deal.
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“We’ve always said we’d get to it after a tournament,” he said. “We’ve had good conversations after the Euros, there will be an appropriate time to do it.
“We’ve got a bit of time because obviously she’s contracted to 2025, and she’ll obviously want to have a decent holiday after this. But all I’ll say is we’re massive fans of her. We believe she’s happy, and we’d love to continue working with her for a long time.”
The FA will also continue discussions with the Lionesses over bonus payments after the tournament.
The England team issued a collective statement prior to the World Cup saying they were “disappointed” discussions had not progressed with the FA over bonuses and commercial structures.