London: Harry Redknapp accused the Football Association of being clueless and said he "would not trust them to show him a good (England) manager if their lives depended on it".
The Queens Park Rangers manager was a favourite to replace Fabio Capello as England manager last year while he was in charge of Tottenham Hotspur but the FA decided to appoint Roy Hodgson instead.
"I wouldn't trust the FA to show me a good manager if their lives depended on it," Redknapp said in his autobiography which is being serialised by the Daily Mail.
"How would they know? What clubs have they ever run? Who do they speak to who really knows the game?"
"This isn't about them giving the England job to me or Roy Hodgson, but English football being run by people who really haven't got a clue. And they get to pick the England manager."
The 66-year-old said he held no grudge towards Hodgson, who leads England into their final two 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland with a place at the tournament in Brazil still uncertain, but said senior players wanted him to get the job and he had already approached Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, then in charge of Swansea, about being his assistant at the 2012 European Championship.
"Everyone said I was the people's choice, the only choice. All the senior players seemed to be up for me to get the job. I got quite a few text messages at the time from players saying they would love me to manage England: Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry. But the FA went for Roy Hodgson to be the England manager - a man who is more their cup of tea."
He said that Hodgson was more of an "FA man", having come through their system, and that the governing body may have been put off by a potentially large compensation demand by Spurs' chairman Daniel Levy.
"I'm sure the FA would deny they were interested in me anyway, they always like to say they got their No 1 choice, but maybe what helped make their minds up was the thought of writing a cheque in the region of £16 million to Levy."
Redknapp was sacked by Spurs at the end of the 2011-12 season, with some fans saying he had become distracted by the speculation amid a poor run of form, and claims of disloyalty at his public comments about the England job after the club had supported him during his tax evasion court case, both of which he disputed.
He also said the national team had underachieved and did not have its own identity.
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