The criticism was enough for Eriksson to pull out of the FIFA international football symposium in Berlin where he was due to have been a guest speaker.

"He has had enough. He thinks people have being saying what a shit he is and how incompetent he is, and that, just because England have won now a match, people are saying how bad he was," Johansson said.

"He has his money and will still try to have his pride, instead of standing here in Berlin with nobody listening to him because he failed to bring the World Cup to England."

Eriksson was England boss for five years, a reign that ended in disappointment in July when his side were knocked out of the World Cup at the quarterfinal stage by Portugal.

It was a familiar ending for Eriksson and England in major tournaments, after they lost to Brazil in the last eight of the 2002 World Cup and to Portugal at the same stage of Euro 2004.

The 58-year-old Swede was widely castigated after earning a reported 25 million pounds during his tenure.

Johansson added that Eriksson, long a target for the English tabloid press, had also endured too many invasions of privacy.

"I don't defend him, and there are things he did he should have avoided, but I can understand that he had had enough.

"He has tried to adapt to the style where you hunt people all through the night but he has had enough."

Eriksson had been invited to be among the VIP speakers alongside World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi and France's Raymond Domenech but pulled out at the weekend.