Big Sam’s back - now get ex-England boss to manage YOUR team for a day

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Big Sam Allardyce is making a sensational return to management … with YOUR club.

The ex-England manager and Premier League legend has teamed up with the Every Minute Matters campaign to offer his services to a Sunday League team for a day. Big Sam has managed over a thousand games in his career and will come back for one more in a special Mirror Sport competition.

The former Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham, Sunderland and Everton boss will oversee selection, tactics and deliver the pre-match, half-time and full-time talks for one lucky amateur team.

Allardyce is one of the football personalities backing a Sky Bet and British Heart Foundation (BHF) initiative to raise awareness of life-saving CPR amongst everyone in grassroots football

It is part of the pioneering Every Minute Matters campaign – a unique partnership between Sky Bet and BHF and supported by the English Football League - which has already successfully inspired over 350,000 people to start learning CPR since the campaign launched in May 2024.

To have a chance of signing Big Sam for the day, simply send your name, contact details, the name of your team and your league, in the form below. If you can't see the form, click here.

The winner will be drawn on December 1 and Sam will take charge of a game between January 1 and April 30, 2026. All entrants need to be part of an adult over 18s men’s or women’s 11-a-side team. Teams from walking football can enter.

Allardyce was inspired to help the Every Minute Matters campaign by the shocking experience suffered by Fabrice Muamba, whose heart stopped beating for a total of 78 minutes after he suffered a cardiac arrest in an FA Cup match at White Hart Lane in 2012.

Allardyce explains: “I can still vividly remember what happened to Fabrice a couple of years after I left Bolton. Thanks to immediate CPR and defibrillation, Fabrice made a full recovery. But most grassroots football teams don’t have a medical team on site, which is why it’s critical anyone who plays amateur football – at any level – knows how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator.

“Too many people still think you have to be a medical professional to step in, but that’s simply not true. Anyone can learn these lifesaving skills and if someone collapses, you need to have the confidence to act. “And that confidence comes from training. That’s why I’m urging everyone in grassroots football to take 15 minutes to learn CPR and defibrillation with the BHF’s brilliant free online tool, RevivR.”