FA forced to bin 4,000 Sam Allardyce quote T-Shirts they planned to give away to fans at Malta game
THE FA are binning 4,000 T-shirts bearing a message from disgraced ex-England boss Sam Allardyce they had planned to hand out to fans at Wembley.
They had ordered a bumper batch of tops to hand out at Wembley before England's match against Malta next week, celebrating Big Sam's first home game in charge of the country.
Each was emblazoned with the Allardyce quote "The journey starts with us all pulling together", which he made on the day he was announced as the new Three Lions boss in July.
A giant mosaic to be held aloft by the fans was also purchased as England went all out to help build up the atmosphere at the World Cup qualifier.
But now that and the entire stock of T-shirts have had to be written off in the wake of Allardyce's sacking.
In total it has left the FA around £25,000 out of pocket as the entire programme of activity to celebrate his homecoming was canned.
The mosaic alone cost £3,000 with a further £10,000 spent on the T-shirts which FA officials hoped would gain widespread publicity.
It is the latest example of how Big Sam's naive decision to try to cash in on his status as England boss has caused mayhem at the game's governing body.
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Allardyce has admitted he made a mistake meeting the fake businessmen offering him £400,000 to become a keynote speaker, but he claimed he was the victim of entrapment.
He was dumped by the FA on Tuesday after the revelations appeared in the Telegraph which showed footage of him appearing to advise the businessmen how to get round rules on player ownership.
Allardyce also appeared to mock the speech of former boss Roy Hodgson as he attempted to impress the group in an effort to help seal his lucrative deal.