``With great regret the Football Association and Glenn Hoddle have agreed to terminate Glenn's contract,'' FA spokesman David Davies told a news conference.

The FA's technical director Howard Wilkinson will take temporary control of the England team, starting with next week's friendly against world champions France at Wembley.

The sacking came after an interview with Hoddle, published in last Saturday's edition of The Times. ``You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and a half-decent brain. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime, he was quoted as saying.

The comments sparked outrage, which grew in subsequent days, despite Hoddle's claim he had been misrepresented.

However, he did not deny he had spoken the words, and indeed had made a similar claim in a radiointerview last year.