England’s “Golden Generation” of football stars have led the tributes to their former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has died aged 76.
Erikssonhad pancreatic cancer, and at the beginning of 2024 revealed he only had a year to live “at best”.
In a statement, his family confirmed he had died, writing on Monday: “After a long illness, SGE died during the morning at home surrounded by family.
“The closest mourners are daughter Lina; son Johan with wife Amana and granddaughter Sky; father Sven; girlfriend Yanisette with son Alcides; brother Lars-Erik with wife Jumnong.”
The Swede became the first foreign manager of the England men’s football team in 2001, coaching players including David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, and Frank Lampard.
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Former England captain Beckham led tributes from the players, describing his old boss as “a true gentleman”.
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Posting a video of the two of them walking together, Beckham wrote: “We laughed, we cried & we knew we were saying goodbye… Sven thank you for always being the person you have always been, passionate, caring, calm & a true gentleman…
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“I will be forever grateful for you making me your captain but I will forever hold these last memories of this day with you and your family…
“Thank you Sven and in your last words to me: ‘It will be ok’.”
Soon after, Lampard wrote on Instagram: “He was an absolute gentleman and was always there for you on and off the pitch.
“I will always be grateful to him for the trust and support he gave me in my England career.
“Thanks Sven for all you did for me. My thoughts are with your loved ones at this difficult time.”
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He was heralded as a “very special man” by Rooney, who also thanked him “for the memories and all your help and advice” in a statement on X.
Italian lawyer Nancy Dell’Olio – Eriksson’s former partner of nine years also paid tribute with a series of photos of them together.
The 63-year-old described their relationship as having “ups and downs” but said she would “always hold onto those cherished memories”.
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“I choose to remember the good times we shared and the moments that brought joy to our lives,” she said on Instagram. “When you love someone, that love never truly fades. Rest in peace, Sven. You will be missed.”
Also among those paying tribute was Prince William, president of the Football Association (FA), who said: “Sad to hear about the passing of Sven-Goran Eriksson.
“I met him several times as England manager and was always struck by his charisma and passion for the game.
“My thoughts are with his family and friends. A true gentleman of the game.”
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Sir Keir Starmer said he was “deeply saddened” by news of Eriksson’s passing.
The prime minister said: “He will be remembered for his tremendous contribution to English football which brought joy to so many over the years. Our thoughts are with his family.”
Meanwhile, the FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham said England’s next home game at Wembley will feature a tribute to the former manager.
It is due to take place when the Three Lions play Finland in a Nations League match at the stadium on 10 September.
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The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, described Eriksson as a “great innovator and a true ambassador of our beautiful game” a nod to his record of winning titles in three different European countries – Sweden, Italy, and Portugal – and an international career spanning four continents.
‘Outstanding coaching success’
Eriksson left the England role after the 2006 World Cup and would later manage Mexico and the Ivory Coast, as well as English clubs Manchester City and Leicester City.
He rose from being a PE teacher in a small Swedish town to the peaks of English football.
Clubs including Man City, Lazio and IFK Goteborg all paid tribute to Eriksson, as did the Swedish Football Association, which called him “one of Swedish football’s most influential coaches”.
“With his outstanding coaching success, Svennis has inspired leaders in Swedish football for several decades, and his influence extends far beyond Sweden’s borders,” it said.
“Thank you, Svennis, for everything you have done for football, both in Sweden and abroad. Rest in peace.”
Other former players including Gary Lineker, Peter Crouch, Rio Ferdinand, David James and Michael Owen all joined in paying their respects, the latter describing him as “one of the very best”.
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While current England captain, Harry Kane said: “I didn’t have the privilege of playing under Sven but I know how well liked and respected he was by those who played under him as England manager.
“My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.”
Due to his health issues, Eriksson stepped down as sporting director at Swedish club Karlstad in February 2023.
After announcing his cancer diagnosis, Eriksson was granted his lifelong wish when he led out Liverpool Legends, as they played in a charity match against Ajax at Anfield in March.
He described the moment as “absolutely beautiful” and a “huge memory” in his life, with Liverpool winning the game 4-2.
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Paying tribute, Liverpool said: “The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Sven’s family and friends at this extremely sad time.”
Speaking previously, Eriksson said he hoped to be remembered as “a good man”.
“I had a good life. I think we are all scared of the day when we die, but life is about death as well,” he said, speaking at the end of the Amazon Prime documentary Sven.
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He added: “You have to learn to accept it for what it is. Hopefully, at the end people will say, ‘yeah, he was a good man’, but everyone will not say that.
“I hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do.
“Don’t be sorry, smile. Thank you for everything, coaches, players, the crowds, it’s been fantastic. Take care of yourself and take care of your life. And live it. Bye.”
Temperatures in a hamlet in northern Scotland fell to -18.7C (-1.66F) overnight – the UK’s coldest January night in 15 years, the Met Office has said.
Altnaharra, in the northern region of the Highlands, reached the lowest temperature while nearby Kinbrace reached -17.9C (-0.22F).
It is the coldest January overnight temperature since 2010, when temperatures dropped below -15C several times at locations across the UK, including -22.3C (-8.14F) on 8 January in Altnaharra.
Forecasters had previously said there was a very small probability it could reach -19C.
Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: “Friday night into Saturday morning may well be the nadir of this current cold spell.”
Temperatures for large parts of the UK are set to fall again as the cold weather continues.
Met Office meteorologist Zoe Hutin said: “We’ve still got tonight to come, and tomorrow (Saturday) night could also be chilly as well.
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“Temperatures for tomorrow night, it will be mainly eastern parts that see temperatures dropping widely below freezing, so East Anglia, the northeast of England, northern and eastern Scotland as well.
“So another chilly night to come on Saturday, but then as we go into Sunday and into Monday, then we can start to expect temperatures to recover somewhat.
“I won’t rule out the risk of seeing something around or just below freezing again on Sunday night into Monday, but it won’t be quite so dramatic as the temperatures that we’re going to experience as we go overnight tonight.”
On Monday, temperatures are expected to be more in line with the seasonal norm, at about 7C to 8C.
The freezing conditions have led to travel disruption, with Manchester Airport closing both its runways on Thursday morning because of “significant levels of snow”. They were later reopened.
Transport for Wales closed some railway lines because of damage to tracks.
Hundreds of schools in Scotland and about 90 in Wales were shut on Thursday.
Meanwhile, staff and customers at a pub thought to be Britain’s highest were finally able to leave on Thursday after being snowed in.
The Tan Hill Inn in Richmond, North Yorkshire, is 1,732 feet (528m) above sea level.
Six staff and 23 visitors were stuck, the pub said on Facebook.
The government contract for the controversial asylum barge in Dorset has ended.
The last asylum seekers are believed to have left Bibby Stockholm at the end of November after Labour said it would have cost more than £20m to run in 2025.
Its closure this month was expected, and on Friday the management firm and the Home Office confirmed to Sky News the contract had now expired.
It’s currently unclear when Bibby Stockholm will leave Portland and what it will be used for next.
The Conservative government started using the vessel in August 2023.
It said putting nearly 500 men on board while they waited for an asylum decision was cheaper than paying for hotel rooms.
However, it was controversial from the start and sparked legal challenges and protests.
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Days after the first group boarded there was an outbreak of Legionella bacteria in the water system and it had to be evacuated for two months.
Pressure on hospitals is particularly high this winter, with more than a dozen declaring critical incidents in recent days.
Hospitals struggle every winter with additional pressures due to the impact of cold weather, but the early arrival of flu this season and high volume of cases meant Christmas and New Year’s weeks were even busier than usual.
There are currently at least 20 hospitals that have declared critical incidents in England, although this is a fast-moving picture, and some trusts will go into critical incident for as little as half an hour.
The latest NHS winter situation reports give a more detailed look at the level of pressure experienced by individual trusts, including those with the worst ambulance handover delays and highest levels of flu patients.
Ambulance handover delays
When a patient arrives at a hospital in an ambulance, clinical guidelines suggest that it should take no longer than 15 minutes to transfer them into emergency care.
It is now common for handovers to regularly exceed this timeframe, however, when emergency departments are overcrowded and lack the capacity to keep up with new patient arrivals.
This is risky for patients because it delays their assessment and treatment by clinicians, and also reduces the availability of ambulances to respond to new incidents.
The trust with the longest delays was University Hospitals Plymouth, with an average handover time of three hours and 33 minutes over the week – two hours and 40 minutes longer than the average for England. It also recorded the longest average handover times for a single day, at five hours and 14 minutes on New Year’s Day.
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On 7 January, University Hospitals Plymouth declared a critical incident at Derriford Hospital due to “significant and rising demand for hospital care”, though this has since been stood down.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust had an average ambulance handover time of three hours and 15 minutes, increasing by more than an hour from one hour and 51 minutes the week before.
In Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, 83% of handovers took more than 30 minutes, the highest share among areas dealing with more than five ambulance arrivals per day.
This area also recently declared and then stood down a critical incident.
In total across England, 43 trusts out of 127 had average handover times of more than an hour, while nine areas had average handover times of more than two hours.
Flu
This winter’s flu wave arrived earlier than usual and has hit health services hard.
Over New Year’s week, there were 5,407 flu patients in hospitals in England on average each day, more than three times higher than during the same week last year and increasing by 20% from the week before.
The worst impacted trusts were Northumbria Healthcare and University Hospitals Birmingham, with 15% and 13% of all available beds occupied by flu patients respectively in the latest week.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had among the biggest increase in flu patients from the previous week, more than doubling from 18 to 42 patients per day on average.
Use the table below to search for local flu hospitalisations:
There are some indications that flu activity may have now peaked, with national flu surveillance showing a decrease in positive flu tests in the latest week, though activity remains at high levels.
Bed occupancy
Current NHS guidance is that a maximum of 92% of hospital beds should be occupied to reduce negative risks associated with overfilled beds.
These risks include the impact on patient flow resulting from it being more difficult to find beds for patients, and negative impacts on performance and waiting times, as well as being linked to increased infection rates.
In the week to 5 January, 92.8% of 102,546 open hospital beds were available each day on average, not far off the recommended level.
However, bed occupancy was very high in some trusts, with more than 95% of beds occupied in 43 trusts on average over the week.
The trust with the highest rate of bed occupancy was Wye Valley NHS Trust, with 99.9% of 332 beds occupied on average throughout the week.
There was only one day when beds weren’t fully occupied, on 3 January, when two beds of 322 were available.
Use the table below to search for local bed occupancy:
Kettering General Hospital NHS Trust recorded bed occupancy of 98.5% over the week. This trust declared a critical incident on 8 January.
Part of the problem for bed availability is prolonged hospital stays – also known as bed-blocking.
This is often linked to pressures in other parts of the health and social care system, for example when patients can’t be discharged to appropriate social care providers even though they are ready to leave hospital.
Just under half of beds occupied by patients in English hospitals last week were occupied by long-stay patients who had been there for seven or more days.
In seven trusts, at least three in five beds were occupied by long-stay patients, while in Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust the figure was more than four in five beds.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.