The FA on Thursday found that Eriksson had "no case to answer" over charges he misled them over his affair with FA secretary Faria Alam, 38.

"Pole axed" was the back page headline in the Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily tabloid, which predicted that Eriksson would be sacked if England lost either of next month's 2006 World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Poland.

The Sun said that 56-year-old Eriksson's England career was "hanging by a thread," adding that England's exit from Euro 2004 at the quarter-final stage had not helped the Swede's future prospects.

It argued that the FA board "have decided that if they cannot get him (Eriksson) for a sex scandal they will get

him for rubbish football".

"Sven has a result... at last!" trumpeted the Daily Mirror, adding: "Eriksson knows any slip-ups will leave him wide open to further calls for him to be axed."

The Daily Mail called it a "hollow victory" for Eriksson. "There will be no margin for error in his handling of the national football team."

"Sven survives, Faria cashes in and English football is the loser... again," headlined The Independent.

The paper rounded on FA chairman Geoff Thompson, who, it said, "benefits from what seems to be nothing less than a meltdown in basic working morality."

Thompson speedily approved the denial issued by the FA that Eriksson had an affair with Alam, "the cause of deep embarrassment which in a more worldly society would have been avoided by a simple device: no comment," it said.

The FA was forced to publish a humiliating retraction in which it confirmed chief executive Mark Palios also had an affair with Alam.

Both Palios and FA communications director Colin Gibson, who tried to broker a deal with Sunday tabloid the News of the World in which he would provide details of Eriksson's relationship with Alam provided Palios' name was kept out of the paper, have since resigned.

"Eriksson faces another kind of pressure," added The Independent. "He cannot afford a single slip in the qualifying campaign for World Cup 2006. He may be protected by a huge contract, but there is a point where performance is required and any strict analysis of his recent efforts shows a desperate shortfall in vision and authority.

"The FA must hold its collective breath for a few more days at least," it warned in reference to likely details to be revealed by Alam over the workings of English football's governing body.

Alam, who also resigned from the FA, is set to sell her story to a TV channel and two newspapers for at least 500,000 pounds.

"The end of the affair is just the start of embarrassment for the FA," warned The Guardian.

"For Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has already endured the story of his built-up shoes outside Ulrika Jonsson's bedroom, there may be much worse embarrassment to come," the paper said.

The broadsheet cautioned that "antipathy towards Eriksson is common knowledge now and it will colour future reactions to him and the results he achieves.

"One bad result in 2006 World Cup qualifying will reignite resentment and have some FA figures wondering if there is any way to be rid of him," it said.

Under the sober headline 'Eriksson has no case to answer,' the broadsheet Times asked Alam's publicist Max Clifford - a well-known fixer in British media circles - who had the most to fear from her revelations.

Clifford replied: "Certainly not Sven. She thinks very highly of him and does not wish to have revenge on him... She is very unhappy at the way the FA have looked after her."

Eriksson was branded "Teflon Man" by the tabloid Daily Express which claimed that no allegations ever stuck to the Swede.

It commented that "never before has the FA reached such an incredible situation with their incumbent England coach."

Elsewhere, the broadsheet Daily Telegraph summed up the feelings of many bewildered fans: "Eriksson ... uttered a phrase that serves as a perfect headline for the whole fiasco: 'This is nonsense'."