The FA's chairman Greg Clarke has admitted that former England Women boss Mark Sampson should have been dismissed "three or four years ago".
The 34-year-old's four-year spell in charge of the Lionesses came to an end a fortnight ago after it emerged that he had been involved in a six-month relationship with a player in a previous job at the Bristol Academy.
Neither Clarke nor chief executive Martin Glenn were in post at the time of Sampson's hiring, and the chairman claims that he only became aware of a previous FA report into Sampson's behaviour at Bristol recently, prompting the decision to let him go.
"When you get to the point where the new chairman and the new chief executive find out something that wasn't shared with the board a long time ago, do you think - that's a shame, we'd have done something if we'd known, or do you make a decision?" Clarke told The Telegraph.
"Martin said - 'Look, I found this out yesterday.' I said - 'Right, what do you think?' He told me, I agreed with him and we had a board conference call. We sent out some papers, we asked some questions about legalities, facts, what happened when.
"And we made a decision. Now, that's the sort of decision that should have been made three or four years ago, but you can't use that as an excuse to duck the decision today."
Sampson is rumoured to have been given an £80,000 payoff as a result of his contract being terminated.
