Football Association chairman David Bernstein has insisted that new England boss Roy Hodgson was the "stand-out candidate" for the post.
Bernstein also refused to be drawn on the reasons for not appointing Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp, but he insisted that the FA's shortlist contained more than two names.
"Over a period of time, Roy emerged as stand-out candidate. We canvassed opinions across a large part of the game. We did not approach West Brom until last week. We met at Wembley on Monday and quickly decided Roy was the right man to guide us through the European championships," Bernstein told reporters.
"The board was unanimous in choosing Roy. It's the first time the FA has appointed an English manager with international experience."
When questioned on Redknapp, Bernstein stated: "First of all, I'm not going to discuss any other manager, or any other name, or any other club. Can I also say that we had a shortlist, and the shortlist was not two people, we had a shortlist of more then two people, this was never a two-man race.
"I am very comfortable with what we did, it was our strategy from the beginning to do things extremely thoroughly and to try and end up with a single candidate and a single approach, which is exactly what we have done."
Hodgson himself also commented on Redknapp, who emerged as the early favourite for the position. He said: "I've got great respect for Harry. He sent me a voicemail message. He's been very gracious. I hope we will remain friends. We have unwittingly become rivals."
Hodgson will begin his preparations for Euro 2012 immediately.
Matt Law
