Following the FA's announcement, a spokesman for Nationwide, which recently took over as sponsor of the England team, said: "We are pleased the FA have acted decisively . . . and the job for us is now to concentrate on the first major event of our sponsorship, which is the coming match against France.

"We have not been party to the meetings between the FA and Mr Hoddle. It appears the FA have looked at all the issues and listened to the views of Mr Hoddle and other interested parties and have decided to take action.

"They have acted decisively and appear to have taken action after considering all the facts.

"Our position as sponsor of the England team has been to ensure that we were not associated with views we thought would cause distress to our members.

"We are the sponsors of the team, not any individual, and we do not see why this should disrupt our sponsorship of England in any way."

The chairman of the Football Task Force, David Mellor, said: "I take no pleasure in the demise of Glenn Hoddle but I do not think he gave the FA any choice.

"His personal beliefs have become inextricably linked with his job. English football was being dragged down by Glenn Hoddle's bizarre beliefs."

Mellor congratulated the FA for their handling of the situation and said that Hoddle's replacement faces a "really tough assignment".

For the Tories, shadow culture, media and sport secretary Peter Ainsworth said: "I entirely respect the decision of the FA, who have no doubt come to their conclusion on the basis of what they believe to be right for the sport."

He would not comment on the rightness of the decision, insisting it - as well as the question of who will succeed Hoddle - was for the FA.

"I won't make the mistake the prime minister made by seeking to involve myself in a decision that is not for me to take."

Downing Street said last night that Tony Blair had no comment to make on Hoddle.

But the British Sports Minister Tony Banks said: "It is a personal tragedy that Glenn Hoddle's career as England coach has ended in this fashion.

"He is a decent man but his views as expressed, as David Davies has just said, caused distress to many disabled sports men and women who have achieved so many sporting triumphs for the country.

Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester, who was Britain's first Minister for the Disabled, said: "I felt his position was untenable and the FA came to the same conclusion.

"What caused the mixture of anguish and anger among disabled people was the clear implication of what he said, that they have nobody to blame but themselves.

"It was a cruel thing to say to a man who lost both his legs in the Anzio landings. And it was a cruel thing to say to a child who is trying to cope with a severe disability. He caused great offence to hundreds of thousands of disabled people."

Lord Morris went on: "The point will be argued that he should be judged on his standing as a football coach and not as a commentator on social issues. But the one impinges on the other.

"It has been a setback for the campaign to civilise attitudes towards disabled people."