- Dan Ashworth was sacked as Man United sporting director after 159 days
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe said it was a mistake to hire him and he ‘lacked chemistry’
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Dan Ashworth has returned to the FA – and will sit on a three-man panel tasked with identifying Thomas Tuchel’s successor.
The 54-year-old has been out of work since his time as Manchester United sporting director was cut drastically short after just five months in December.
He will rejoin the governing body after departing in 2018, and has been handed the newly-created role of chief football officer.
Mail Sport understands Ashworth will form a brains trust with chief executive Mark Bullingham and technical director John McDermott to find a successor to Tuchel, whose short-term, 18-month contract ends at the conclusion of next year’s World Cup.
Ashworth, who worked at Brighton and Newcastle ahead of his ill-feted stint at Old Trafford, will oversee both men and women’s teams.
Bullingham hailed his return to St George’s Park. ‘Dan is a hugely influential and respected figure in the game, who has a long-standing commitment to England football,’ he said. ‘We are very happy to welcome him back in this new role.’
Dan Ashworth has agreed a new role with the FA months after his abrupt exit from Man United
The sporting director was brutally sacked by Manchester United after just 159 days in the post, having been poached initially from Newcastle (Pictured: Red Devils co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe)
Ashworth has returned to the FA and will oversee their new ‘St George’s Park 2.0 project’
Following his departure from United, and the abrupt conclusion of a saga which cost the club £4.1m, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe described both his appointment in July 2024 and the retention of then manager Erik ten Hag as ‘errors’.
It is thought that differences in opinion over who should replace Ten Hag played a major role in his departure.
Ashworth, a former Norwich academy product, cut his teeth as a sports administrator at Peterborough and Cambridge before making his name as a shrewd operator as West Brom’s sporting and technical director.
His work with the FA, where he was credited as one of the driving forces behind the England men’s team reaching the semi-finals at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, raised his profile significantly, and the part he played in Brighton’s rise as their technical director prompted Newcastle’s new Saudi-backed owners to make him their sporting director in 2022.
United fought hard to lure him to Manchester and eventually got their man, only to dispense with his services summarily amid the club’s ongoing problems on the pitch and Ratcliffe’s restructuring work off it.
