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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Roy Hodgson has been asked by the English Football Association to remain as head coach until 2016 despite the team being eliminated at the World Cup group stage for the first time since 1958.
England has opened the tournament in Brazil with losses to Italy and Uruguay, and its hopes of advancing from Group D ended when Italy lost 1-0 to Costa Rica on Friday.
At Hodgson's first tournament as coach, England reached the quarterfinals at the 2012 European Championship, and the FA wants him to see out contract until after Euro 2016.
"We're supportive of Roy Hodgson. We've asked him to stay as manager," FA chairman Greg Dyke said. "We do not see any value in changing. We think Roy has done a good job and it is an approach over four years and we hope to do better in the European Championships."
Dyke was satisfied with how England's youthful team performed.
"Everybody thought we played really well in the first game (against Italy) and narrowly lost," he said. "In the second game it could have gone either way. We were not humiliated or anything like that. They were narrow defeats, but it is for the football people, not for me to identify why we did not win."
England can't even make a rapid escape from Brazil, with a group game still to play against Costa Rica on Tuesday.
Hodgson insisted after Thursday's 2-1 loss to Uruguay that he would not walk away from the job.
"I'm bitterly disappointed, of course, but I don't feel I need to resign," the former Inter Milan, Liverpool and Switzerland coach said.
Since becoming FA chairman last year, Dyke has targeted the 2022 World Cup as the tournament when England should finally emulate its only success in 1966. An FA commission reported last month that measures must be taken to reduce the number of foreign players in Premier League teams and increase opportunities for homegrown players.
"I think there is a real chance that we can develop and win in 2022 — that is the aim," Dyke said. "We know that we have a problem, that there are not as many English players playing in the Premier League, or even the Championship, now as there used to be.
"Therefore that is the choice that is left, but ... I don't think that is a cause for what has happened here."
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Rob Harris can be followed at www.twitter.com/RobHarris
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